The Beast Within
by Sweetly Broken
Summary: Full summary inside. Features an OC. Pairings: KxOC, SxS. A girl leaves everything behind in hopes of finding a place where she can belong. Her search turns into a chase when a dead man returns from the grave and wants revenge.
1. Chapter 1

Summary: Ella Marie Diaz is not all she seems to be. She has spent all her life running and hiding. Her secret is kept behind lock and key. Her heart is surrounded by walls to protect others from her, never letting anyone get too close. When she falls through a mirror that transports her halfway across the world to a shop that grants wishes, she wishes to find a place where she can belong. Things become more complicated when a man from her past reappears with new powers and a thirst for revenge. As she struggles to hide her true identity, a certain ninja just might break through her walls and capture her heart.

Hey there! (: So. Since this is my first fanfic, it's not going to be awesome. It's written in third person because, frankly, I suck at first person. I've tried but I always unconsciously switch into third person. Plus, I just like being able to switch to different views easily since there are a lot of characters. This is going to follow the manga mostly, but there'll be some things from the anime. And I'll be adding a couple worlds of my own because I don't think there are enough worlds to develop the characters and such. Anyways, moving on, here's the disclaimer.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tsubasa Chronicles. I am only a loving fan who can only wish to create something as amazing.**

With that done, I present you the first chapter! Enjoy!

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><p>f l u f f y white clouds were littered prettily across the blue sky. The wind was blowing gently, making the trees sway slowly to unheard music. In short, it was absolutely beautiful outside. A young teen sitting near the back of the classroom thought so too. She itched to be outside to feel the cool breeze instead of being in a stuffy classroom. She could tell that her classmates were antsy also. Many, including her, kept glancing at the clock, willing it to strike three and free them from the torture that was history class. <em>Five minutes feel like forever.<em> She tapped her pen to the rhythm of a song that was currently stuck in her head. She continued to stare out the window and daydream, not paying attention to anything in her surroundings. She looked up at the clouds

"Ella," a voice said sharply. The teen jumped a little at the sound of her name being called. She turned and saw that everyone was staring at her. The teacher sighed.

"Pay attention please. And stop tapping your pen. It's distracting."

"Sorry," she said, quickly stopping the movements of her writing utensil. The teacher resumed her lesson and her classmates averted their eyes. She sighed. She couldn't wait for class to end and school to let out.

Just then, the bell rang and the room was alive with noise. Students were packing up their things and rushing out the door, excited for the weekend. Ella also rushed out, but not because she had something better to do. As she walked down the hall, she thought about what she could do with her day. She didn't have much homework so she could put off doing it until tomorrow. Maybe she could go for a run down the street near her home. She nodded to herself. That wouldn't be so bad. She just hoped her sort-of guardian Victor didn't decide to come home. He was rarely at home on Fridays but there were those rare times when he decided to show up.

She barely had the time to finish her thought when an obstacle got in her way. She gasped as she found herself tripping and falling. She landed on the ground with a grunt. Her books fell from her arms and scattered across the floor. She heard laughter and voices around her but one in particular stood out to her. It was rather high-pitched and annoying. Looking up, she wasn't surprised to see her fellow classmate Christina Lee.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said, obviously not meaning it. "I shouldn't have left my bag on the floor. I forgot what a klutz you were." She smirked and laughed, walking off with her puppet-like friends. But not before kicking away some of her books. Soon, the laughter faded and everyone stopped looking at the teen. Ella sighed and gathered the books closest to her. She looked up when a book came into her line of view. She saw the smiling face of the girl she could consider as her friend.

"Dropped something?" she said, teasing a little. Ella favored the girl with a small smile as she took the object from her hand.

"Thanks, Maria," Ella said, standing up.

"No problem!" she replied. She glanced in the direction Christina went off in and shook her head. "That girl just gets meaner by the day."

"Tell me about it," Ella said with a sigh.

"I know!" she exclaimed as they walked down the street. "Does she have nothing better to do than pick on you?"

"Apparently not," Ella sighed.

"I don't know why you put up with her." Ella just shrugged at that, thus ending the conversation. They talked about their day before they reached the destination where they went their separate ways. After waving goodbye, Ella continued down the street until she reached the brown building that was her home. Unlocking the front door, she stepped in and was glad not to be greeted by the smell of alcohol, meaning that her guardian was still out drinking or whatnot.

As she locked the door behind her, Ella caught sight of her guardian's daughter's, who she considered as a sister, bag lying on the ground near the door. It was her favorite bag and she always brought it with her whenever she went out. If it was here, that meant she was home.

"Molly!" she shouted. "I'm home!" Ella didn't hear a reply as she walked up the stairs. Dropping her books and bag to the floor as she entered her bedroom, she ran to her bed and flopped down on it with a sigh. She laid there for a few moments before changing out of her uniform and taking a quick shower. She looked out the window and saw the sun still shining. It was nice weather for a run. She adorned a loose, rather large teal shirt with short sleeves. It also had a pocket over her breast. She pulled on a pair of faded denim shorts and put on her gray sneakers. She tied her hair up in a messy ponytail and grabbed her iPod and earphones before leaving her room.

"Hey, wait!" Ella stopped halfway down the stairs and turned around. Standing at the top was Molly.

"You going out? Good. I need you to go buy some stuff for me," Molly said, pulling a piece of paper from her pocket and handing it towards the younger girl. She snapped her gum and resumed chewing. Ella sighed as she reached up and took the paper. It was a ripped sheet of notebook paper with the words: gum, watermelon, sunflower seeds (salted), and tampons, on it in the familiar messy print.

"Fine," Ella said. So much for a run. Oh well. She could run to the store. She slipped the paper into her back pocket.

"'Kay, thanks!" Molly said before Ella heard the sound of her footsteps, dashing back to her room to do whatever. Ella went back to her room to grab her small bag. It had a beige strap that went across her chest. The bag was a creamy color with a teal bordering. A flap went over the bag and had a hole for the brown button that secured it close. It was rather saggy and limp but it fit a lot of stuff. Ella put in her blue cell phone and wallet in there, along with the list.

Once out on the street, she put her playlist on shuffle and made her way to the local Safeway. As she passed an alley, a bright flash caught her attention. She backed up and saw the bright flash again. She couldn't tell what it was, other than it was something big. Curiosity getting the best of her, she walked in thinking, _What's the worst that could happen?_ Soon she saw that it was an abandoned body-length mirror. She noted that it was rather beautiful. The frame was silver and looked like leaves and vine growing on a branch. She heard voices and turned off her iPod, putting it in her bag. She furrowed her brow. She couldn't hear it. It was faint and there weren't any words she could make out. So much for her sensitive ears. Maybe it was too far away? She unconsciously put her hands on the mirror.

_"Are you the Witch of Dimensions?" a boy said._

_"I have been called that," a woman replied._

_"Please… help save Sakura!"_

_"There is a price if you wish to save the child._

_"I want to-" she heard two men say._

_"-never return to the world I'm from."_

_"-return to the world I came from!"_

_"What is your wish?" the woman asked._

"My wish…" Ella said in a trance-like state. Before she knew it, she was dissolving into the mirror. Soon she found herself falling into darkness.

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><p>In the country of Japan, the sky was covered in gray clouds and the earth was showered with rain. A tall woman stood in a yard before the house that was her shop. She was wearing a black dress and a moon necklace around her neck. She had long black hair and red eyes. The woman suddenly lifted her head to the sky. An opaque, water-like substance stretched from the sky, like a falling raindrop in slow motion. It dispersed the second it touched the ground, revealing two kids. The boy had chocolate brown hair and amber eyes. He was holding an unconscious girl with light brown hair in his arms.<p>

"Are you the Witch of Dimensions?" the boy asked.

"I have been called that," the woman replied.

"Please… Help save Sakura!" he pleaded.

The witch walked towards the boy. She kneeled down and touched the girl's forehead. "Her name is Sakura, you say? Yours is?"

"It's Syaoran," he said.

"This child has lost something very precious, and that something has been scattered to different dimensions. If nothing is done, this child will die."

The witch ordered the boy standing behind her to get something for her and he ran back inside the house, being dragged by two little girls.

"There is a price if you wish to save this child," she said to Syaoran.

The boy looked at the witch with determined eyes. "I will pay any price I can just to save Sakura!"

Suddenly, a high-pitched sound came out of nowhere.

"They're coming," the witch said.

A substance similar to the one that brought Syaoran stretched out from the sky and another one from the ground. They dispersed at the same time and now, two tall men were now standing beside the boy. The man standing beside Syaoran had fair blond hair and striking blue eyes. He wore a long white coat that was lined with fur and had blue designs. He held a long golden staff with blue crystals. The other was taller, by at least a head. His skin was tanned, and he had spiky jet black hair and red eyes. His clothing consisted of a black cloak over black armor, and he was also wearing some sort of headgear. He held long sword with a silver dragon hilt.

It was almost comical when the two men unintentionally spoke at the same time.

"Who the hell are you?" the one in black rudely asked.

"Are you the Witch of Dimensions?" the one in white asked.

Both of them looked at each other, the black one glaring at the white one. The witch ignored their inquiries and her eyes were focused on the sky once more.

"There is one more." As soon as the words left her lips, there was a strange whistling sound. The wind seemed to pick up just a little. A bulge similar to the others stretched from the sky. But instead of setting its package down gently, it broke and sent a girl plummeting to the earth. At first, it seemed like no one was going to do anything except gawk at the girl. As she neared, it was obvious that the man in black was closer to her. He sighed and extended his free arm just in time to catch the girl. She had wavy black curls that were tied up messily. She also had dark brown highlights and blonde ends. Her skin was as pale as the blond man. Her eyelids fluttered a little before opening to reveal black irises. She stared at her surroundings in a confused daze. Did she die? But this didn't look like any sort of afterlife. In fact, it looked a bit familiar. She then realized that she was in the arms of some stranger. Embarrassed, she quickly regained her footing and stepped away a bit. His arm dropped to his side.

"Where am I?" she finally spoke.

"Please give me your names first," the witch said, pointing at the girl to start speaking.

"Ella," she stated simply. The witch eyes went to the one in black.

"I'm Kurogane," he said rudely. "But where the hell am I?"

"Japan," the witch answered.

"Huh? I came from Japan."

"This is a different Japan."

"Wait, Japan?" Ella exclaimed as she registered the words being said. "Are you telling me I just transported halfway across the world?"

"Not exactly, but yes," the witch said. Then she turned to the one with a long staff. This man was polite, unlike Kurogane. He bowed before the witch before introducing himself. "I am a Celes country wizard, Fai D. Fluorite."

"Do you know where we are?"

Fai nodded. "A place where any wish could be granted if a suitable price is paid." _What?_

"That's correct. Well, since you are all here, that means you all want some sort of wish."

The two men spoke at the same time once again.

"I want to-" the two men said.

"-never return to the world I'm from." Fai completed his sentence with a smile.

"-return to the world I came from!" Kurogane finished, glaring at Fai when he noticed that they spoke in unison again.

It was Ella's turn to make a wish but she was still stunned by the events taking place. Different worlds? Wishes? Princesses and magicians? What in the world? Or maybe it should be worlds now.

"What?" she said stupidly. "Am I dead? Or dreaming?"

"No," the witch said. "This is reality."

"But…magic doesn't exist, does it?"

"Magic can be in the most unexpected of places. Shouldn't you know that?"

Ella frowned. Was she referring to 'it'? How would she know about that? Well, if she was supposed to be able to grant wishes, she could be a witch with some kind of magic. "That isn't really magic," she said defensively.

"It's still something that is considered a myth, is it?"

"True but…how do you know?"

"You'd be surprised," she said mysteriously.

Ella bit her lip in thought. Her rational side was telling her that this couldn't be possible. Magic was the thing of fairytales. But then there was herself. She was a mythical creature. She should just believe. Then again, this was supposed to be a story. She had been swallowed by a mirror, a magical one it seemed. But if this was a dream, it wouldn't matter what she did. If this was real though, then this could be her once-in-a-lifetime chance. She could either take it now or never again.

"My wish," she finally spoke, "is to… find a home. A place where I can belong and be happy." She knew it probably sounded like a weird wish. She knew she could've wished to go back to Molly and Victor, but she didn't want to. Sure, she was grateful for all they had done for her, but she always felt a bit out of place. She didn't want to feel like that anymore.

"That's a hard thing for the four of you to do," the witch then said. "Those wishes you have, if you pay separately, it won't be enough. But if you four pay together it might be barely enough."

"What the hell are you talking about-?" Kurogane interrupted.

"Please be quiet, Kuro," Fai said teasingly.

"My name is Kurogane!"

"You four all have the same wish," the witch explained, continuing as though she had merely paused to take a breath. Looking at Syaoran, she spoke: "You, child, want to go to different worlds to collect this girl's memories." She turned to Kurogane. "From a different world, you want to go back to your own world." She glanced at Fai. "You want to go live in a world other than your own." Her eyes moved to Ella. "You wish to search for a world you can belong in."

"Your purposes are different, but the means are the same. You have different reasons why you want to go to different worlds. Each one of your wishes, I can't grant them. But if the four of you each give me your precious item, the four of you can go to different worlds."

"What do I have to give you?" Kurogane asked.

"That sword."

He took a step back and raised the sword above his head to keep it away from the witch. "I'll never hand over my Ginryuu!"

The Dimensional Witch had a sly look on her face and she poked him on the chest. "Fine then, in exchange, you can roam around looking like a cosplayer, violate the weapon laws, get arrested by the police, and get interviewed on television."

"Eh? Poli- Tele-" Kurogane tried to decipher what half the words meant while the witch watched with a huge smirk on her face.

"I'm the only one in this world able to send you to another world," the witch added.

"Bullshit!"

"It's true," Fai said.

"Really?"

"So what are you going to do?" The witch already had her hand outstretched as she waited for him give the sword.

Kurogane reluctantly sheathed his sword and handed it to the witch with a huff. "When I'm free from this curse, I'm coming back for it!"

The witch took the sword but she never once touched it with her own hands. She let it float next to her as she faced Ella.

"Your price is the picture in your locket."

The girl's eyes widened. The picture? She hand unconsciously flew to clutch the locket. It was an expensive piece of jewelry, bought during the times when she had money to spare for luxuries. It was a sterling silver oval locket that had a floral design engraved on the front. The top of the locket had a delicate decorative frame that attached to the bale. It had been a birthday present to her by her parents, and she loved it to pieces. It was her most important thing, right after the picture inside it. The locket held a family portrait of her parents and her seven-year-old self. Ella was reluctant to give it away but it didn't seem like she had another choice. She sighed and reluctantly removed the picture. It glowed before floating out of her hand and to where the other prices were.

"As for you," the witch then said, looking at Fai, "your price is your tattoo."

Fai looked troubled. "Will this wand not do?"

"I said, the price is your most important thing."

He was smiling even though his eyebrows met in the middle. "I guess I have no choice then…" He leaned forward slightly and through his cloths, weird markings floated off of his back and went to hover beside the witch.

The witch turned her attention to Syaoran. "And you? What is the most precious this you own? And will you give it to me to go to another world?"

"Yes."

"Your price has not yet been told and yet you will still give it to me?"

"Yes."

"I can only help you travel your paths to different worlds. You must search for this child's memories yourself."

"Yes."

"…Good. You're prepared."

"There's more-?" A boy wearing glasses came back running from inside the house holding two rabbit-like creatures.

"Here he comes." The witch took the white one with the red gem on its forehead.

"Her name is Mokona Modoki. She will take you to different dimensions…"

"You have another one," Kurogane interrupted. "Hand me that. I'll go with this one."

"That's only for communication. All he can do is communicate with this Mokona," the witch said.

"Mokona can take you to another dimension but she can't control where you land. Your wish becoming true is only by luck." The witch paused. "But there are no coincidences in this world. There is only hitsuzen. You were all destined to meet."

She faced Syaoran. "Syaoran, your payment is the relationship. To you, the most important thing is the relationship with that girl. So I'll take it."

Syaoran looked confused. "What does that mean-?"

"Even if she gets all her memories back, you will not have the same relationship with her as before. What is she to you?"

Syaoran looked down at the girl's face. "My childhood friend, the princess of my country, and someone who is very important to me."

"…I see," the witch said. "But if you're going to use Mokona, that relationship will disappear. Even if you were able to return all her memories back, the part about you won't return. That's your price. Still?"

"I'll go. I won't let Sakura die!" There was a fierce determination in the boy's eyes.

"Traveling through various worlds will be tougher than you think. There are many worlds… for example. These people come from different worlds. You can tell by the clothing they wear, you understand? That the worlds you come from are different…"

"People that you know, people from past worlds, people may have different lives in different worlds. You may meet the same people in many different worlds. For those who were nice to you in one world, you can't be certain they will be the same in another."

"There are worlds where the language and common sense can't be understood. Living standards and rules are also different in different worlds. For some of the worlds they are full of criminals, lies, or wars. You have to keep living and passing through the worlds, while looking for the fragments of the memories, not knowing where or when they will all be gathered."

"But, you are still steadily determined… right?"

"…Yes."

The witch extended the creature towards them. "Readiness and sincerity, qualities that are indispensable in order to accomplish anything. Qualities you are properly provided with."

"Well then," the witch said. "Please get going."

Mokona floated out of her hand and a magic circle appeared under her. Large white wings grew from her back, and when she opened her mouth, a strong vacuum sucked them inside the small creature.

The witch stared up at the clearing sky. "Good luck on your journey."

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><p>And that's it! I hope you liked it! Any kind of review will be loved. (:<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hello! Here's the second chapter. But first...

animechick247: Thanks for reviewing! It made my day. (: And I feel the same way about KuroxOC stories.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tsubasa Chronicles.**

Enjoy!

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><p>e l l a ' s eyes fluttered open as she came back from unconsciousness. She found herself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. Well, it was as unfamiliar as any other plain ceiling. She noticed that her hair was let loose, her hair tie around her wrist. Sitting up, she felt her iPod and earphones in her pocket. She placed them in her bag, which was still on her. She saw that she was in a small square room. She noticed the magician Fai and the creature Mokona trying to dry the boy's wet figure, which was still clutching the unconscious girl. In the corner was the man dressed in black. His head hung low and his headgear covered his face so Ella couldn't tell if he was awake or not.<p>

Ella looked at them all, still finding it hard to believe that she was in a story. Was this really real? Well, there was only one way to find out: keep going and see what happened.

"You're awake!" a voice said from the creature. It jumped onto Ella's knee, surprising her. "Mokona dried you while you were asleep!"

Ella stared at it, shocked. But she recovered quickly, not wanting to be rude. She gave her - she figured it was a female - a small smile. "Uh, thanks." She hopped off her knee and resumed her task of drying the boy. She glanced up as the mage moved to her and sat down next to her. He gave her a dazzling smile.

"Hello. My name is Fai D. Fluorite but you can just call me Fai. What's your name?"

"Ella," the girl answered.

"That's a nice name," he replied.

"Thanks."

"SAKURA!" Syaoran suddenly screamed as he awoke. His panic disappeared when he saw that he was holding the said girl.

"I see you're awake," Fai said, moving back towards him. "We tried to dry her but you wouldn't let go."

"Thank you," the boy said.

"My name is Fai D. Fluorite, but you can call me Fai," the magician introduced.

"Syaoran," the boy said.

"And what about Mr. Black in the corner?"

The seemingly sleeping figure rose and angrily shouted, "It's not 'Mr. Black'! It's Kurogane!"

"Ah! What about Kuro-chan? Or Kuro-rin? Or Kuro-tan?" The angry warrior only continued to flail his arms at the creature bouncing in his lap. Then Fai pointed at the girl. "That's Ella-chan!" he said, pointing at Ella. The girl took note of the honorific. Wait, if she had been in Japan, hadn't they been speaking Japanese? But it all sounded like English to her. Maybe there was some kind of magical device translating for them. Yeah, that was probably it. Well, either way, it was a good thing she had taken Japanese as a second language instead of French.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by a scream. She looked up to see the mage was rummaging around his cloak in an awkward position. Kurogane sweat-dropped at the sight. Ella simply watched with a raised eyebrow. What the heck? When he pulled away from the poor boy, he held a large white feather with designs imprinted on it.

"Is this what a piece of memory looks for this child?" He held the feather out for them to see.

"That's one of the feathers that flew away. This is one of Sakura's memories!" Syaoran exclaimed.

The feather floated out of Fai's hand and flew towards Sakura's chest where it entered her.

"Her body's a little warmer," Syaoran whispered with relief.

"If you didn't have that feather, it would've been a problem," Fai said.

"One of the feathers stuck to my clothes by coincidence."

"There are no coincidences in this world, there is only hitsuzen," Fai quoted. "That's what the witch said, remember? My guess is you grabbed the feather unconsciously in order to save the girl. But how do we find more feathers? I doubt that we'll find more in our clothes."

The little white creature bounced and landed on top of Syaoran's head. "Mokona knows!" All their eyes landed on her as she waved her small hands to get everyone's attention. "That feather gave out really big waves so when one is nearby, Mokona will be like this.

The little white creature's eyes opened wide and her mouth made an O" shape. Ella and Kurogane screamed in shock, Syaoran seemed to have frozen, and Fai didn't have any reaction. He just sat there with the usual smile on his face.

"Well it looks like we have a way. If we get close to a feather, Mokona will let us know," Fai said.

"Whether or not you get to search for the feathers is up to you guys, but it has nothing to do with me," Kurogane said with a slight huff. "I came here to return to my world and that is my only purpose. I don't plan on joining or helping you because I'm not doing it."

Syaoran nodded. "Yes, this is my mission. I'll do my best not to cause you any trouble."

Fai laughed loudly and gave Syaoran a pat on the back. He noticed that Kurogane glared at him and Ella. "What will the two of you do? Will you help out that brat?"

Fai just smiled. "I suppose so. Unlike you, returning to my world isn't my priority. So as long as my life is not in harm, I'll be helping Syaoran-kun out. There isn't anything to do anyway."

Kurogane's eyes moved to Ella, who nodded. "Sure, why not? There's not really anything else for me to do."

The door suddenly opened, surprising the four. A man and a woman entered the room, both carrying things in their hands. Both of them took of their shoes and left it at the step before entering the room.

"Yo!" the man greeted. "You woke up. Don't be so alert, you came from Yuuko-san's place right?"

"Yuuko-san?" Syaoran asked. He was handed a blanket by the woman which he used to cover Sakura's sleeping body.

"The Witch-neesan, the Witch of Dimensions, the Far-East Witch… She's called by a lot of names," the man said with a smile. "I'm Arisugawa Sorata."

The woman bowed her head. "I'm Arashi," she said as she was handing out tea to everyone.

Sorata faced Kurogane and placed both hands on his shoulders. "If you flirt with my honey, I will kill you."

"WHY IS IT ONLY ME?" Kurogane complained with a scowl on his face.

"Rules, rules!" Sorata sang. "But I'm serious!"

"I WON'T FLIRT!"

Sorata took Mokona into his hand. "First of all, did that Witch-neesan give you this?

"Mokona Modoki!" she exclaimed.

"I heard the story from blond-niichan over there. For one thing niichan, you're a little lucky."

"In what way exactly?" Fai asked.

"Mokona has no idea which is the next world right? So, it's a happy chance that brought you to this world first." He took several steps towards the window and slid it open. "…because this is Hanshin Republic!"

Sorata held a hand puppet that looked just like him to explain things in a much more fun way. Behind him was a big white board with some charts and a map of their world attached to it to help him with his lesson. "You are in the Hanshin Republic, a very nice country. It is surrounded by seas in all sides, and some typhoons come and go sometimes but we have no earthquakes! We have a nice relationship with other countries and the economy is quite nice."

Puppet Sorata held a long pointer in his hands and approached a chart. "We have four seasons. Right now its autumn, so the rice tastes best during this season! Mostly we use flour or our food and our tiger sauce is also famous."

Puppet Sorata donned a graduation cap, while on the side Arashi now held a puppet similar to Sorata's but it looked just like her. "For laws we have the constitution of Hanshin: we never make wars with other countries!" Puppet Sorata continued. "For transportation, we have cars, bicycles, motorcycles…" as he named each mode of transportation, he moved closer to Puppet Arashi. "… Ships, trains, airplanes… and maybe a baby carriage too, Honey?"

Arashi remained silent.

"The country looks like that," he pointed at the country with the shape of a tiger using his pointer. "It looks like a tiger so many people call it the country of the tiger."

"The Republic has a lot of tiger stuff," he continued, showing them the flag of their country which had the silhouette of a tiger's head in the middle and their currency. "Our currency is called the koko (tiger), and our national flag also has a tiger mark. The baseball team also has a tiger mark!"

Fai raised his gloved hand. "May I ask a question?"

Puppet Sorata pointed his pointer at him. "Yes, Fai-kun?"

"Does everyone in your country have the same accent that you have?"

"You can call me Sora-chan," Sorata said. "The way I speak is an older version of our language."

"It was used in the old days?" Syaoran asked.

"Yeah, nowadays hardly anyone uses this language anymore, but I as a history teacher, want to keep traditions," he explained.

"You're a history teacher?"

"I take it you have an interest in history?"

Syaoran nodded. "In my world, I used to help in archaeological digs."

Ella covered her mouth to hide the yawn that came through her. She knew she should pay attention, but she felt tired and all she wanted to do was lie down and rest. She glanced over at Kurogane who was now dozing off in his corner.

"One more question," she heard Fai say. "Who owns this room?"

Sorata place both his hands on his wife's shoulders. "This is an empty traditional apartment room that my honey and I manage."

He noticed Kurogane sleeping in the corner and pointed his mighty finger at him. "Pay attention!" he said in a loud voice. An unknown force suddenly hit Kurogane at the back of his head causing the other travelers to be once again alert. Syaoran immediately used his own body to shield Sakura's.

"What was that?" Kurogane asked, scanning the room for any other life form. "I wasn't able to sense anything…" He turned his head to glare at Sorata. "Did you throw something?"

Fai was serious, he wasn't like his usual smiley self. "You're in a corner. If he had been the one who threw that, it would've hit you somewhere else. It had to come from above."

Sorata looked at them, dumbfounded. "What? I just used my kudan."

All four pairs of eyes looked Sorata as they repeated the word "kudan" with confused look on their faces.

"Oh yeah, you guys are from a different dimension so you don't know about it," Sorata said. He inserted a marker into Puppet Sorata's mouth and started writing something on the white board behind him.

"Everything in this world is "haunted" by a kudan. This is how you write it."

"Oh, I see…" Kurogane murmured.

"I can't read it," Fai said with a smile. "My country doesn't use those symbols."

Mokona bounced on Syaoran's knee. "Mokona can read it!"

"I can read it too," Syaoran said.

Mokona turned around to look at the two females. "Can you read it Ella?"

"More or less."

"So Kurogane, Ella, and Syaoran's worlds use kanji, but not Fai. But for some reason, the spoken language is the same," Sorata thought aloud.

"This kudan…" Kurogane said. "What is it? You said it "haunts?"

"Even if you are from another dimension, you will still have a kudan," Arashi spoke. She knelt down beside Sakura. "I don't know where the fragments of Sakura-san's memories went. It could be in anyone's hands right now. You don't know if a conflict will arise from this."

She looked over at Fai and Kurogane. "You guys lost your power to fight right?"

"How did you know?"

"She used to be a miko," Sorata explained. "She has the sixth sense. But she retired because she married me."

Fai scratched the back of his head. "I gave the witch of dimensions my power."

"And that witch took my sword!" Kurogane complained.

Arashi looked at Ella, waiting for her to tell her what she paid as a price. "I gave up a picture."

Arashi went back to Syaoran. "I didn't hand over any powers to her. I didn't have any magical powers or weapons to begin with."

"Maybe you are lucky," Arashi said. "…Because in conflict, kudans can be used as weapon."

"Kudans are for battle?" Syaoran asked.

"What it is and how to use it… That's something you have to find out about yourself. To understand what a kudan is, you have to see it with your own eyes," Sorata said with his arms crossed.

"So the intro to this country is finished!" he exclaimed as he nodded to the bored. He turned to Mokona and leaned forward. "Is there a feather that belongs to Sakura-chan in this country?"

"Yes," Mokona replied. "It's far away, but it's here."

"Let's look for the feather!" Sorata said to Syaoran, who nodded in reply. He looked over at the rest of the gang. "Will you guys be helping Syaoran-kun out?"

Fai smiled. "I suppose so." Ella nodded.

"If I said that I wanted to leave, would you do it?" Kurogane rudely asked the little white creature who shook her head, her big ears moving along with the motion. "Nope, I won't leave this country until the feather is found."

Sorata nodded. "Okay then. We'll be taking care of you guys until you depart for another world." He took his wife's hands and gently squeezed it. "After all, we are in the witch's debt."

"You can stay here until you go to another world," he continued, dragging along Arashi and pushing the white board out of the room. "Since it's almost midnight, I'll show you to your rooms. Fai, Kurogane, and Ella can share a room."

"Okay!" Fai said.

"WHAT?" Kurogane shouted. Ella gave the two suspicious looks, wondering if they would try something funny. Oh well, if they did, she could just kick their asses. She followed the men as Sorata showed them to their room, across from the one they were just in. She went in and saw a small mattress and a blanket on the floor in the middle of the room.

"Ella-chan can have the bed," Fai announced. Ella frowned. That wasn't fair. They shouldn't sacrifice comfort because she was the girl. She rummaged through the closet and found a stack of warm-looking blankets. She grabbed two of them and handed one to Fai.

"Here," she said. The blonde mage smiled at her.

"Thank you," he said.

"You're welcome." Ella made her way to the ninja. He opened his eyes, sensing her presence and hearing her footsteps. He didn't expect to see the girl extending a blanket towards him.

"I found some blankets in the closet. I don't think Sorata-san and Arashi-san will mind. It might be kinda cold at night." Ella wore a small smile but she felt a bit nervous when he just continued to stare intensely at her. She exhaled when he finally took the blanket. She moved towards her futon and climbed under the covers. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep.

* * *

><p>Ella opened her eyes the next day and found herself back inside the room provided for her in the Republic of Hanshin. She didn't see either man so she guessed they had woken up earlier.<p>

Her thoughts then went to her dream of the butterfly. Her hand unconsciously went to her chest and touched the area where the kudan entered her. She could swear that she felt something move inside her.

The group stood outside the apartment building together with Arashi and Sorata. They all wore clothes that were worn in the Hanshin Republic. In Ella's opinion, it didn't seem too different than what she usually wore. She walked out of the building wearing a plain white T-shirt tucked into a floral skirt. Her hair was let down, the wavy curls falling passed her breasts.

"You four!" Sorata said in a loud voice to call their attention as he exited the building. "There's no use staying inside. If you want to find Sakura-chan's feathers, why don't you go out and take a look around?"

"Alright!" Fai and Mokona said in unison.

"Walk around, and then you'll understand what 'kudan' is," Sorata said.

Ella noticed that Syaoran was glancing every now and then at the window of the room where Sakura was sleeping. Of course, Arashi noticed it too.

"Don't worry," she told him. "I'll take care of Sakura-san."

"Do we have to bring the white thing?" Kurogane grunted.

"Bring Mokona with you. Otherwise, you won't know if a feather is nearby. Don't worry, no one will mind Mokona. All sorts of weird things already happen in this city," Sorata said. He rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a frog-shaped purse. He placed this on Syaoran's hand. "There's enough money for the four of you to buy lunch. So you guys go eat lunch together like good little boys and girls do."

"Why does the kid get the money?" Kurogane asked.

"Because he looks the most trustworthy!" Sorata replied.

"WHAT'S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?" the ninja shouted.

They walked together through the city, weaving through the groups of people. Buildings of every size could be seen everywhere they looked.

"It's crowded," Fai said loudly but only the other four and Mokona can hear it. "Tall buildings mingle with small buildings… Have you ever seen this kind of scenery before, Syaoran-kun, Ella-chan?"

"No," Syaoran said, shaking his head a little so that Mokona, who was perched on top of his head, wouldn't fall off.

Ella, on the other hand, nodded. She brushed her bangs away from her eyes to get a better look of her surroundings. It looked like any other busy city, like Tokyo or New York City.

"What about Kuro-tan?" Fai asked. The ninja glared at him.

"No! And don't call me that stupid name!" he shouted.

They continued to walk forward until they ended up to what appeared to be the market of the city. Stores that sold food and other perishable goods lined up the half the street.

They passed by a store which sold fruits and a man who was inside called their attention. "Welcome!" he said in a booming voice. "Would you want to buy some apples?"

The males stared at the round, red fruit in the man's hand.

"That's an apple?" Syaoran asked.

"Of course it is!" said the man with a smile.

"An apple doesn't look like that in Syaoran-kun's world?" Fai asked.

The boy shook his head. "The shape is the same but the color is more yellow."

"Isn't that a pear?" Kurogane asked.

"No," Syaoran said, shaking his head. "Pears are redder with a stalk on top."

"That's a raki-seed!" Fai chirped.

"A what?" Apple and pear were familiar terms but never before had she heard of a raki-seed.

"Hey!" the man roared impatiently. "Do you want to buy it or not?"

Mokona raised her hand. "Buy!"

They decided to eat their apples at the bridge where they could see a river underneath it. They all took an apple from the bag and slowly took a bite from the fruit.

"Apples taste good!" Fai said with a smile. Ella nodded as she took a bite. She had to say it tasted sweeter than the ones she was used to, but it was indeed good-tasting.

"But we really are from different worlds…" he continued.

"How did you get to the Dimensional Witch's place, Syaoran-kun? You said you didn't know any magic."

"I was sent by the High Priest in my country," Syaoran replied.

"Ah! That priest must be really something. It's not easy to transport even a single person yet he managed to send to people at the same time!"

"Ella-chan?"

"Uh, I think I was born in that world but a mirror transported me to that place I think," she said before shrugging. "I don't know. I'm still wrapping my head around all this magic stuff."

"I see… what about you, Kuro-rin? Who sent you to the witch's place?"

Kurogane flinched at the nickname. "I was forcefully sent there by the princess of my country."

Fai laughed together with Mokona. "You must have done something bad and you're being punished!" An angry Kurogane flailed his arms at the mage.

"What about you, Fai-san?" Syaoran asked.

Fai smiled as he leaned against the railing of the bridge. "I went there on my own."

Kurogane glared at him. "Then why did you ask the Dimensional Witch for help when you could've just travelled between the worlds by yourself?"

"I can't! Even with all my power, I can only transport myself into another world once," Fai said in a tone that made it seem like it was just common sense for everybody. "The people who transported you all have very strong magical powers. But even if they used all of their power, I suppose they can only transport someone into another world once."

"That's why the priest transported Syaoran-kun to where the Dimensional Witch is. In order to get all of Sakura-chan's feathers that contain her memories, we have to travel to different worlds and the only one who has the power is the Witch of Dimensions."

Just then, there was a loud shriek. They saw people running away from that direction. A group of people who wore goggles over their eyes and stood on top of the buildings. There was another group on the ground who wore caps and they seemed to be fighting with the group who was above them.

"We'll get you this time for sure! This is our territory!" shouted the leader of the cap-wearing group.

The leader of the group wearing goggle stood in front of the group and gave them a "thumbs down" gesture. Bystanders ran away, dragging along their children and their loved ones.

"Just because you have a high level kudan doesn't mean you get to be so cocky!" shouted a member of the cap-wearing group.

The leader of the goggle-wearing group raised his arm above his head and his members behind him jumped off the building to attack, creatures of different shapes and sizes appearing on their arms out of nowhere. The opposing group below also had creatures appear on their arms as they engaged into battle. Beams of light came out of the creatures and were aimed at the enemy.

"So that's a kudan?" Kurogane asked, unshaken by the panic around him as he had his hands inside his pockets. Even Fai was relaxed and didn't seem to care.

"No wonder Mokona didn't scare anyone even though he can move around," Fai said.

Some of the beams of light hit the buildings, causing some parts to collapse and fall on the sidewalk. The bystanders who happened to be standing there covered their heads and ran away screaming.

A tall kudan in a shape of a humanoid appeared and leaped to attack the leader standing at the top of the building. He didn't move from his spot.

His kudan appeared in a form of a large manta ray and had the powers of water, unlike the other people who just had beams of light come out from their own kudans. The kudan opened its mouth and brought a huge wave of water, washing away the opposing group.

Syaoran noticed two boys running away. One of them slipped in a puddle of water caused by the huge wave from the leader's kudan.

"Watch out!" he shouted and jumped to cover the two boys from another wave. A huge ball of flame with an orange wolf in it appeared above Syaoran and made the wave evaporate and turn into steam. He glared at the man on top of the building.

"Looks like you have a high level kudan too!" he said with a smug smile.

The big, flaming, orange wolf landed on the ground beside Syaoran and stood in front of him to protect its master.

"A kudan that manipulates fire…" the leader thought aloud. "I'm water and you're fire… This is fun."

Syaoran stepped in front of the two boys together with his own kudan. Another huge wave came when the leader's kudan opened its mouth. This time, Syaoran was surrounded by a wall of flames that quickly turned the water to steam as soon as it made contact.

"I'm Shougo Asagi," the leader said. "What's your name?"

"…Syaoran."

"I like you now," he said with a smile.

A loud police siren was heard not far from the street that they were standing in.

"Shougo the police are coming!" said a member as they were starting to run away.

"Damn… and things were just getting interesting," he muttered. He looked over his shoulder to leave his last message for Syaoran. "The next we meet we'll have some real fun!" He jumped on top of his kudan and it flew away together with his group just before the police arrived.

Syaoran's wolf kudan turned into a ball of flames and entered through his own chest. Fai, Kurogane, and Ella approached him slowly.

"You were great, was that all you Syaoran-kun?" Fai asked with a smile.

"I don't know but my body just started to get hotter," he explained.

The smaller boy bowed and then suddenly disappeared.

"It disappeared!" Syaoran screamed in surprise.

"Oh, that was also a kudan!" Fai said.

"What?" Ella exclaimed in slight disbelief.

"Anything's possible…" Kurogane, who stood next to her, muttered.

"Anyway, what happened to that kudan of ours?" Fai said as he looked around for a little round white ball with a red gem on her forehead.

"Isn't it squished somewhere?" Kurogane said tiredly.

"No…" Fai said, pointing his finger. Ella looked in that direction and saw Mokona surrounded by a group of girls who were all hugging and cuddling the little white creature. She sighed and shook her head before going to get Mokona back.

"Where were you, Mokona?" Fai asked as Ella brought Mokona back to their group.

"Mokona was on top of Kurogane, then he threw me off…" the creature explained. She bounced to Syaoran's head lightly and leaned forwards and flapped her arms up and down. "And Mokona went like this!" She opened her eyes and her mouth formed into an "O" shape, saying the word "Mekyo!"

"Sakura's feather is nearby?" Syaoran asked, pulling Mokona to make her stand on his hands.

They listened as Mokona explained how she felt the feather during the fight, but she didn't feel it anymore. Syaoran looked sad and disappointed.

"It's difficult to figure out who was there a few minutes ago…" Fai said, leaning against the railing.

Syaoran tried to put a smile on his face and to be optimistic. "But the fact that we know someone has it is good."

The boy who Syaoran had just saved approached him slowly and gave him a low bow. "Thank you very much for that situation," he said. "My name is Masayoshi Saitou. Please allow me to do something in order to repay you for saving me."

Syaoran tried to decline the offer but Mokona suddenly jumped on top of his head and exclaimed. "Mokona wants lunch! Something really good!"

Masayoshi nodded and led them to a shop where they sold food which they called "okonomiyaki".

The five of them (Mokona included) stared at the pancakes in front of them. It was one of those shops where they cook the food in front of you so there was a stove on top of the table.

"This is…?" Syaoran asked.

"I like this okonomiyaki the best here!" Masayoshi said.

"This is called okonomiyaki?" Fai asked. He laughed softly when he noticed Kurogane staring intently on his own share.

"Okonomiyaki is the main food here in Hanshin Republic, so if you don't know, that means you're from outside of Hanshin?"

Fai placed his head on his hands. "You can say that." Masayoshi looked at him, confused. He then decided to change the subject. "Do those people always fight over there?"

Masayoshi looked down. "That… They want to test their strength. They form teams and compete to see who has the stronger kudan. There are bad teams and there are good teams. The good teams watch for people not to get violent in the property, and they fight the bad guys."

"What about the team that came here?" Syaoran asked.

"The ones in caps are the bad guys! But the ones with goggles are different! When they fight with the other teams, he only destroys a few buildings, and when the adults get mad, he doesn't do anything bad to them unlike the other teams."

Ella let her thoughts wander, not listening as Masayoshi explained the kudan rankings. She really didn't care and instead, she watched the okonomiyaki fry in front of her like what Kurogane was doing. She watched as Kurogane picked up the spatula on the plate in front of him and tried to flip it by raising it on one side.

"WAIT!"

The two jumped, seeing as they were not listening. Two servers who both carried trays appeared in front of them, one with dark hair and another with gray-blond hair.

Suddenly, Syaoran stood up and looked at the two of them with wide eyes. "Your Majesty? Why is the king here?"

The man who had the name Touya written on his name tag wore a confused look. "I think you are mistaken, I am not this person who you referred as "king." He looked down on Kurogane who still had his arm up. "And sir, please wait so you don't knock anything over."

"O-Okay…" he replied.

"He was a king in your country?" Fai asked Syaoran. "And the other one with him is the priest?"

"Yes…" Syaoran whispered.

"It's like the witch of dimensions said. You might meet someone from another world, but in different worlds they have different lives," Fai said, lost in thought. "But at the same time their "connections" are the same."

"Connections?" Ella asked.

Fai put his fingers together and made a heart shape. "The place of their lives, their name, their heart…"

"You mean their soul?" Kurogane grunted. Ella wondered if she could see people she knew. Maybe she would. Maybe she wouldn't. Either way it didn't matter to her. But it would be interesting if she saw someone she knew.

The five of them ate their okonomiyakis while Masayoshi further explained the meanings of kudans and other stuff to know about Hanshin that Sorata wasn't able to explain. When they finished, they left again to search for the feather.

Masayoshi made them wait at a certain spot by a tall pillar so that he can call his parents and accompany their group around town to search. It was easier with someone who actually lived in this dimension instead of going around and getting lost. Also, it seemed like Masayoshi wanted to hang around Syaoran more.

"So, Syaoran-kun…" Fai said. "When we stopped talking before, you mentioned that you had a dream?"

Syaoran nodded. "That thing that came out of me was in a dream about a fire beast."

"I had a strange dream with a beast in it as well," Kurogane said.

As Fai was about to open his mouth to say something, a fat man wearing dark glasses and a v-shaped Mohawk stepped forward to them. "Who is the boy called Syaoran?"

"Why do you want to know?" Fai asked with his usual smile.

"Are you the man Shougo said he liked?" he asked the blond. Fai just continued to smile at him. "What if I am?" Ella gave him a strange look. What was he trying to do?

Syaoran stepped forward. "I am the person whom you are seeking," he said firmly.

"You're just a kid!" the man exclaimed.

"He's the one!" one of the members confirmed.

"Are you going to join Shougo's team?" the man asked.

"Team?"

"Don't play dumb with me!" the man shouted. "Shougo says he likes you! You've been haunted by a special kudan!"

"I do not intend to join."

"Then you'll join our team?" the man asked, hopeful.

"No," Syaoran said firmly. "As I said, I do not intend to join any team. I have nothing to do with you so…"

"So you intend to make your own team!" the man exclaimed. "I am going to break you to pieces!"

Suddenly, his huge kudan appeared above him. The creature was like a ball of spikes with a long tail.

"It's so big!" Mokona and Fai joyfully exclaimed.

"That's what she said!" Ella said softly with a smirk, unable to help herself.

The kudan swung its tail to attack Syaoran, slicing the pillar behind him in half. Syaoran easily evaded the attack by ducking down.

"I don't think he deserves this…" Ella heard Fai whisper to himself. He took a step forward, only to be stopped by Kurogane.

"This is getting boring," Kurogane said loudly. "How about I take you on?"

"Kuro hasn't been having fun up until now!" Mokona said.

"Yes!" Fai replied. "He's happy to be in the Republic of Hanshin!"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Kurogane shouted at them.

"But Kurogane-san, the person still has your sword," Syaoran said.

"It was special. It had a cursed blade," Kurogane replied, not turning around. "I need to cut spirits back in the country of Japan." He looked at the kudan in front of him. "This kudan is not a spirit."

"What level is your kudan?" the gang leader shouted at Kurogane.

"Don't know, don't care," he answered. "Stop rambling and attack."

"Syaoran-kun!" Ella turned and saw Masayoshi running towards them.

"Masayoshi-kun, do you know that man?" Fai asked.

The boy nodded in reply. "That team hits our neighborhood. He fights Shougo-san for territories."

"I wonder if that man is strong," Fai mused.

"He has a first grade kudan," Masayoshi said. "That man himself is, um…big. But the kudan is very quick."

"Look at how my first grade kudan moves!" the gang leader shouted to Kurogane. "Hot Crab Attack!" He swiftly moved to avoid the attack, which broke the pillar behind him.

"It broke?" Syaoran exclaimed.

"That kudan's body is completely covered in sharp blades," Masayoshi explained.

"Go! Go! Go!" the leader shouted at his kudan, which was chasing the man. It tried to ram into the ninja but he managed to dodge it.

"Watch out!" Syaoran shouted, starting to run towards him. However, he was stopped when Fai put a hand on his shoulder.

"About Kuro-tan," Fai said, "I think he's trying to help you."

"Falling Crab Attack!" This time, Kurogane was unlucky and got buried under rubble.

"Kurogane-san!" Syaoran screamed.

"What happened to the kudan?" the leader taunted. "It's so weak you can't see him."

"Annoying," Kurogane said as he lifted a piece of rubble off him. He was covered in scratches but it didn't seem like he had any major injuries. "Your constant talking is annoying."

"My kudan is first grade! It is very strong!" the gang leader boasted.

"But it still has a weak area," Kurogane said. "If I had my sword I could stop this quickly." Just then, a mighty blue dragon appeared behind him, catching everyone by surprise. After a few seconds, it transformed into a sword with a large blade and fell into Kurogane's hands.

"I can use this, ay?" he said. "So, you want to fight?"

"Is that your kudan? Well, it looks like it's going to fall," the leader said. "This attack will stop you. Gunshot Crab Attack!" Blades shot out from the kudan's body.

"Spirit Dragon King Blade!" Ella watched with awe and admiration as the ninja easily defeated the gang leader's kudan.

"Looks like Kuro-tan can take care of himself," Fai commented. Ella nodded in agreement and watched as the gang members crowded around their fallen leader.

"You already made a team didn't you?" the man said. "Syaoran's team… and you're part of it!"

"No, I work for myself. Only for Tomoyo-hime," he said bluntly. The gang quickly ran away, bowing their heads in defeat.

* * *

><p>"We're back!" Syaoran announced as he entered the room. Arashi was sitting beside the still-sleeping Sakura.<p>

"We're home!" Fai and Mokona called in unison.

"Welcome home," Arashi replied. Then to Syaoran, she asked, "Did you find any clues?"

"Yes, we did."

"Ah, you're all here? How was it?" Sorata said, making his presence known. "Oh. Before that," he then said. He turned to Arashi, spreading his arms out in a hug. "Honey! A welcome home kiss!" However, what he received was a bump to his head.

"I see," Sorata said after Syaoran explained the events of the day. "You had a feeling about that, but it went. So, when you were in trouble something that looked like a beast of fire appeared from out of your body?"

"Yes," Syaoran answered.

"Like I thought, that's Syaoran-kun's kudan right?" Fai said.

"Yup. And the thing haunting Kurogane must have been pretty big too."

"How did you know?" Kurogane asked.

"Oh hey," Sorata said, turning to Syaoran and completely ignoring Kurogane's question, "I'm really interested in history but kudan was my starting point for that interest. I think kudan are like the gods of this country."

"This is something like a myth passed down through Hanshin's history, you see," he said. "In this country, there are myriads of gods."

"Myriads, huh," Ella said.

"It's written as eight million," Sorata added.

"There's eight million gods here?" Fai asked.

"No, there's more than that," Sorata said. "You can say that there's as many gods as there are different things and happenings."

"So, the gods of this legend are now called kudan?" Syaoran asked.

"So we're co-existing with gods you mean," Fai added.

"The country's gods and the people of this country are working together to protect it aren't they?" Syaoran said.

"I think so too Syaoran!" Sorata said excitedly. "I've always thought that way. The kudan, or should I say gods, that live in this country must have a fondness for us."

"Absolutely everyone here is haunted by a kudan. Which means, that in this country there's not a single person that isn't protected by a god. Well, there are a lot of Hanshin's citizens who always go blood-boiling meat dancing, but it's still a really good country, I think. So, searching for Sakura's feathers here in this country means that you won't have to worry about things like you would in other countries that are in the middle of the war, or in countries filled with bad people."

"Yes," Syaoran said, looking down at Sakura and brushing a strand of hair from her face.

"So!" Sorata said, standing up. "Let's go buy some dinner! Fai and Kurogane can be my helpers!"

"What!" Kurogane exclaimed. "Why me?"

"If you don't work you don't eat," Sorata said simply. Syaoran stood up to go but Sorata shook his head.

"You don't have to go. You can stay here with Sakura. You've been away from her all day right? You were worried huh." Syaoran looked a bit taken aback. He looked at Sakura and smiled.

"Okay! Let's go to the store and buy some food to cook."

"I'll help," Ella said, standing up. She didn't have anything else to do, and she thought that Syaoran would want to be alone with his princess. Ella followed the men out of the room. As she closed the door, she caught a glimpse of Syaoran holding the princess's hand and smiled to herself.

They walked out of the hotel and onto a street lined with restaurants and stores. They walked into a particular one that looked like a grocery store. Ella was suddenly reminded of the previous evening. She had been going to the store to buy some food for Molly before she found the mirror and transported halfway across the world. She wondered if Molly and Victor were doing okay. Were they worried about her? She shook her head. They probably weren't. They had done fine before she joined their family. They would be okay without her.

She grabbed a shopping cart and pushed it along as Sorata grabbed things and put them in.

"Does any of the food look familiar to you?" Sorata asked to start a conversation.

"A lot of it does. It's kind of weird since this is supposed to be another world. Shouldn't it be different?" Ella said.

"Well, not everything can be different," Sorata said.

"I guess so. But I didn't think it'd be this similar."

"You seem used to having supermarkets," he then said. Ella nodded.

"We don't have market stands or anything. Well, we do sometimes. It's called a farmer's market."

"Japan has marketplaces," Kurogane said. "Not this…'supermarket.'"

"Is it mostly land and small houses?" Ella asked.

"Yeah," he said, wondering how she knew.

"My world was like that before everything became modernized. Now you only find those kind of things in countrysides and such." Ella suddenly caught sight of a familiar fruit. She grabbed a plastic carton filled with small round blueberries.

"Are these blueberries?" she asked.

"Yes," Sorata said as he grabbed some apples.

"Can I get them?"

"Sure! Go ahead and put them in the cart," Sorata said. Ella felt a bit hesitant. She felt bad spending their money. But the more they helped, the sooner they'd pay of their debt, right? Ella shrugged off all second thoughts and put the blueberries in the cart. She followed Sorata around the store as he picked out food, some familiar,f some not. Eventually they finished up at the checkout area. As they walked out of the store, groceries in hand, someone bumped into her.

"Hey!" Ella exclaimed when she almost dropped the brown bag in her arms. She spun around and came face to face with a face she thought she'd seen the last of.

* * *

><p>Reviews are loved~<p> 


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Let's see who the mystery person is~

Disclaimer: I do not own Tsubasa Chronicles. Never have and never will.

* * *

><p>s t a n d i n g right in front of Ella was a man who was probably in his late twenties. He had spiked black hair and green eyes. He grinned at the girl.<p>

"Oh, hello," he said casually. "I didn't think I'd find you here."

"W-What?" she stammered. "Who are you?" she then asked. Maybe he was someone else, mistaking her for someone else.

"Oh, please. Don't tell me you forgot me. I think someone would remember the face of the person they stabbed and left bleeding in their living room." He leaned forward so that his mouth was at her ear. Shivers shot through her at the feel of his breath on her skin. "I think someone would remember the face that killed her parents." Ella stood frozen in place, her jaw dropped and eyes wide.

"H-How are you…? I… you're supposed to be dead!" Ella finally got her mouth to work. The man laughed.

"Were you sure about it? Of course not. Tsk, tsk. What a sloppy job you did, my dear." Fuck, was the only thing on Ella's mind. She had thought his life had ended and she would never have to see his face again. It seemed like she was wrong.

"I'm out for revenge, Ella darling. I'm going to make you suffer and wish you were never born." He finally moved away from her and she saw a murderous grin on him. "Of course, not this day or this world. I like to play with my prey. But be prepared. I'm a changed man. You'd be surprised at how much powerful I've become." He gave her a wicked smile and walked away, disappearing in the crowd. She stood as still as a statue until Fai's voice made her jump out of her shoes.

"Are you okay?" She whirled around and found the three standing around her.

"What happened?" Sorata asked and for a moment, Ella thought they had stood there and watched the man threaten her. "We were halfway there when Fai noticed you weren't with us.

"Tch, you made us walk all the way back here," Kurogane grumbled. Ella relaxed a bit. So they hadn't noticed the conversation.

"I'm fine," she said. "I bumped into someone and I stopped and lost you guys." Not a total lie but not the entire truth either.

"Well, let's go now," Fai said.

For the rest of the day, Ella moved on autopilot. Her body was there, but her mind was elsewhere, thinking about her encounter with the man. Damian. A chunk of her life had revolved around the guy. Many of the major changes in her life were because of him. And they had all been horrible changes. Changes she wished she could change to make it so that they never happened. But her major concern was: was this all real? She was having major trouble dealing with all this. But she had seen all sorts of crazy, mythical things happen in the real world. She herself was a mythical creature. Maybe this was real too and she just had to accept it. She let loose a long sigh. So if she accepted this, she was basically travelling with a kid, his princess, a mage (or maybe ex-mage?), a ninja, and a pork bun, looking for the princess's feather memories and running away from a guy she thought died years ago. She sighed again. Her life just got more complicated than she thought. And she thought her life before was hard. Or maybe it was still the same. She had spent a chunk of it running away from a guy, then he supposedly died and she stopped running. Now he was alive and she was running again, except on a much larger scale.

"Ella-san?" The girl snapped out of her thoughts at the sound of Syaoran's voice.

"Huh? What?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just peachy. Why?"

"You stopped eating the blueberries and have been staring at the wall for a while now." Blueberries? Ella blinked and looked down. She was sitting in what could be a considered the living room, which opened up from the kitchen. She was on the couch, a bowl half-filled with blueberries in her lap.

"Oh. I was just thinking about things," she said as she popped the fruit into her mouth. She refrained from making a face as she chewed on the mushy fruit. She had picked a squishy one instead of a good, firm one that could be sweet or sour. Personally, she liked the sour ones better.

"Oh, okay," Syaoran replied.

"How come she didn't have to clean up?" Kurogane asked.

"I'll clean up when I'm done eating. I'm technically still eating. I'll wash up the bowl myself when I'm done," she said, addressing the last part to Arashi. The woman had done a lot and should rest, instead of waiting for her to finish up. Ella could do that herself. Arashi nodded at her words and left the room, probably to do some other chore. Sorata was in his office grading papers for his class. Only the four travelers remained in the living room, with not much to do.

"Well," Ella said after a while, "this is fun." She popped a blueberry into her mouth. "Blueberry anyone?" Everyone refused. "Okay, your loss." Ella continued eating and her chewing became the only sound in the room. She resumed her previous train of thought. Damian… what did he mean when he had gotten powerful? Did he somehow make a deal with the witch and wished for magic powers? Impossible. Even if they met, he'd had to have paid a price. Hold on a minute. How did he get here in this world? How did he get the ability to travel worlds? So he did make a deal with the witch? Or maybe he got the powers from someone else. Someone like the witch but not her. Maybe. Maybe not. It didn't matter. He was here, could go to different worlds, and had some kind of power on his side. Well, whatever it was, she was going to take him on and pray the results were in her favor.

* * *

><p>"As I thought, everyone doesn't walk around with their kudan out," Fai said as he searched the crowd. The moment they left the hotel that morning they immediately began walking around looking for kudan.<p>

Kurogane grunted and placed both of his hands on his hips. "Even if we find a kudan with the feather, will it give up the feather that easily?"

Mokona and Syaoran were too busy with their task of looking for a kudan that they failed to notice a small boy in oriental clothing with his body half-way out of the wall of a building.

Syaoran screamed when he saw the boy, who bowed low at the sight of the four of them.

Ella looked down the road and saw Masayoshi running towards their direction. "Syaoran-kun!" he called. "Did you find what you needed?" As soon as he stopped in front of his kudan, it disappeared and returned back to its master. "If not, please let me guide you again! Today is Sunday so I'm free for the whole day."

"How did you find us?" Ella asked.

Masayoshi smiled. "My kudan can find anyone as long as he's met them once. But that's all he can do! He's pretty weak."

Suddenly, a loud ear-piercing shriek of an animal came from above and swooped down to grab Masayoshi and Mokona off the ground. It flew away up in the sky and out of their reach. It appeared to be a kudan shaped like a large bird. As it was flying away, the bird dropped an envelope with a g-clef seal.

Syaoran picked up the envelope and found a letter inside. He then held it out and seemed to be calling their names. Ella thought it sounded like Chinese though she wasn't sure what dialect. Fai was speaking what she thought was French, but she had no idea what he was saying either. When Kurogane spoke though, Ella heard fluent Japanese.

"What the hell is going on?" the ninja shouted. Ella wondered why she could understand him. Then she remembered he came from a place called Japan.

"So the worlds are different but the language's the same?" she wondered out loud.

"Why the hell is no one making sense?" Kurogane growled. Ella realized she had spoken in English. Well, it was her native language after all.

"Can you understand me now?" Ella spoke in Japanese. Kurogane turned to her.

"Yeah," he answered. "Finally, someone makes sense. You know what's going on?"

"Not really. I guess something's been translating for us but I don't know what. Nothing's changed though, or…" It hit all of them at the same time.

"Mokona!" they all exclaimed.

Syaoran got a map and managed to understand the writing. Now he was waving his arms to get their attention and pointing down a road. They followed him as they ran down the street. When they stopped, Syaoran said something again, this time pointing at a building surrounded by trees. Ella spotted a little white balloon with a red gem floating on top of the building, but then she noticed the ropes tying it around a tiger-shaped statue.

"Mokona!" she heard Syaoran say. "Masayoshi!"

"There they are," Fai said, bringing his arm up to wave at them.

"They look happy… well, at least the white one does," Kurogane muttered under his breath.

They all looked at each other with surprised faces.

"Finally, I can understand what you're saying," Kurogane grunted.

"That means it really was Mokona's ability," Fai said thoughtfully.

The four of them started running once again towards the Hanshin Palace.

"That means if we get separated again, we won't be able to understand each other," Kurogane said aloud as they ran.

"Looks like it," Fai said with a smile.

"That's so annoying!" Kurogane shouted.

They arrived at the Hanshin Palace a few minutes later. They noticed that there was crowd of people in front of the Hanshin Palace.

"What the hell is going on here?" Kurogane asked, looking around.

Since they were standing in front of the Palace itself, like they were on a stage or something, everyone in the crowd could see them. Syaoran took this as an opportunity and stood at the edge. "Excuse me!" he said aloud and held out the letter. "Can anyone tell me who wrote this letter?"

"That would be me!" said someone in a sing song voice.

The crowd started to go wild as a beautiful girl with long sea foam green hair with buns on either side of her head appeared. She also had a pair of fairy wings included in her cute costume.

"PRIMERA-CHAN!" the crowd screamed.

"And who is this chick supposed to be?" Kurogane asked as he looked up.

The crowd booed and reprimanded Kurogane, as if it was his fault that he didn't know who the beautiful girl was.

Syaoran didn't seem to care and he stared at Primera with determined eyes. "Please let Mokona and Masayoshi-kun go!"

Primera looked confused. "Isn't that, Syaoran?"

"I'm Syaoran!"

Primera looked mad as she took out a big paper fan and started hitting her minions on the head. "Fools! I thought you said there was no mistake!" When she was finished, she jumped off the veranda where she was staying and landed on the roof of the palace.

"Please let those two down!" Syaoran said.

"Can't!" The crowd went wild when she winked and pointed a finger at them, her other hand against her hip. "If you want them back, you gotta fight me first!"

Syaoran looked around. "I can't find a way to climb up!

"I might be able to get up!" Fai said, pointing a finger at himself.

"You know where some stairs are?" Syaoran asked.

"Well no. But I think I can get up."

"How?" Kurogane grunted, crossing his arms.

Fai just smiled. "With my kudan's help."

Ella watched as a humongous green bird appeared behind Fai and a strong gust of wind blew. She saw translucent wings fold over Fai's body and his feet floated off the ground.

"He's flying…" Ella whispered.

_Do you want to fly too?_ she heard a voice say. It reminded her a lot of the voice she heard in her dream the other night. She suddenly had a strange feeling on her back. She turned her head around to look. She could see that she had bright blue butterfly-like wings. She smiled. Now this was something could do. After a sudden rush of adrenaline, she was up in the air with the blond mage. She twirled around in the air, enjoying the feeling of the wind in her hair. She felt light and free, nearly forgetting all her troubles. She had missed this feeling. It had been too long since the last time.

Primera whined. "Aww! Flying like that is so sneaky! I can't do that!" She held out her hand to the side and she smiled at her fans below. "My kudan-chan, come on!"

Her hand was shining at one moment and a microphone with speakers attached to it appeared. "Now, take my kudan's attack!"

"EVERYONE!" she shouted to her kudan. "HOW ARE YOU ALL!"

Ella was surprised to see big letters of the sentence she had just said appear out of her kudan and swiftly move towards them. As soon as it was close enough, the letters exploded in mid air hitting them.

"Fai-san! Ella-san!" Syaoran screamed. Kurogane was unshaken and just watched.

The smoke cleared and Fai was there up in the air and still in one piece. He was still as carefree as ever, floating up there in the air and twisting and turning. Ella looked a bit thrown off but was otherwise fine.

"Damn," she mumbled. _That kind of kudan exists too? What kind of world was this?_

"Wow, that's a kudan?" Fai said, barely audible because of the roaring crowd and other sounds. "This country is amazing."

The idol Primera started whining and flailed her arms around. "No! But!" She looked determined as she screamed "I won't lose!" into her mic. Letters of what she said appeared in one line. They exploded once they got near the two. However, they kept dodging and avoided any harm.

"No fair!" the idol shouted. "Stop dodging! Stop running away!"

The letters followed even when they moved to evade, and they exploded once they got near them. Fai was always able to make them explode and come out unscathed. Ella looked in her element as she flew around dodging the obstacles in her way. It was like she was born with wings.

"Why? I keep missing!" Primera whined as she glared at Fai who landed at the edge of the roof of the Hanshin palace.

"If I let you hit me, it might hurt," he said with a kind smile.

Primera was obviously pissed and she gripped her microphone tightly.

"HOW DARE YOU!" she shouted. "TAKE THIS!" The idol had both her hands on her microphone as she screamed her next sentence. It was a tongue twister but she said it incorrectly. It didn't matter though. Letters came out no matter what she said.

The letters this time went to various directions but their only target was the blond mage and the young teenager. He jumped off of the roof and once again used his kudan to fly even higher and evade her attacks. Even though the letters kept on coming in every direction, he evaded it with ease. Ella twisted and turned with grace and ease, almost like a dance. They were making the entire fight look like child's play. Primera refused to give up and continued to shout tongue twisters. It didn't take long for the fight to get boring. All they were doing was evading and they weren't even fighting back.

"In this case… It's time for a change!" Primera said. Her mic extended and a stand appeared. "When my kudan becomes a mike stand, there's no running away!"

"ALL MY FANS LOVE ME!" All the letters were bigger and faster this time that he was caught off guard. "Yeah!" The explosion was bigger than any of Primera's past letters. Fai wasn't able to evade the large explosion and he fell on top of a tree. Ella tumbled through the air but she managed to regain her mental footing. Her wings flapped and she managed to avoid colliding into the tree after Fai. She hovered near the tree before she landed on the pavement. The wings disappeared and the butterfly kudan returned to her.

"Fai-san! Ella-san!" Syaoran screamed for his companions and ran towards the tree. Kurogane just stood there and didn't even move an inch.

"I'm fine," Ella said simply, brushing some dust from the explosion off her clothing.

"I'm alright!" Fai exclaimed immediately after. His hand came out from the leaves and there he stood. "I didn't expect it to change form. And those letters sure do come after you!"

"Since this girl is fighting with her kudan and Mokona isn't reacting, it must mean that this girl isn't the one with the feather," Fai then said.

Primera then started to laugh. "Well? Do you surrender?"

"If I did, what would happen next?" Fai asked.

"Then it's your little friend "Syaoran's" turn to lose!" she said with a small huff.

"We can't have that… Syaoran-kun has some important business to see, I want to end this battle myself."

"In that case… THEN YOU HAVE TO BEAT ME FIRST!"

The letters rushed to Fai but he didn't even try to evade it. Instead, when the letters where only a few meters away, he jumped on top of it and swiftly moved on top of the letters.

Even Primera wasn't expecting that to happen when Fai easily reached her and pushed her down the roof.

"I don't want to cause injury to such a beautiful young lady. Won't you stop?" he asked in a kind voice with a threatening undertone.

Primera started to tear up and didn't notice that she screamed into her mic. "This is so not fair!" The letters hit the part of the roof where Masayoshi and Mokona were and it exploded, causing the rope to burn and the two captives to fall.

"WATCH OUT!" Syaoran shouted. Masayoshi's kudan appeared and tried to pull his master from falling. A familiar manta ray-shaped kudan appeared to save the two and slowly set them on the roof.

"What do you think you're doing, Primera?"

"Shougo-kun!" Primera said.

Ella saw Mokona's eyes open wide. She glanced around. The only kudan she saw were Masayoshi's and Shougo's kudans.

"Syaoran-kun," Mokona called. She was bouncing up and down with her eyes open and she kept waving her arms. "The feather! The feather is close by!"

"Where?" Syaoran said, his eyes opening wide. "Where is it!"

"I don't know but there was a huge wave at first!"

"So some kudan has taken it inside itself?" Fai asked.

"But the presence gets stronger but it weakens all of a sudden," Mokona explained.

"What does that mean?" Kurogane asked.

"Sorata-san said that the kudan protect their owners. So probably, the time that it pulls out its greatest strength is when it's protecting its owner."

Fai smiled. "And that means… The only way to find the feather is through battle!"

The leader of the group wearing goggles yesterday stood at the opposite of where they were standing. "I'm sorry that my words caused unexpected trouble for you…Syaoran. But I meant what I said yesterday that I like you! You are strong, not with your fist but here." He pointed at his chest. "So I want to fight you, with our kudans."

"Shougo, you stupid kudan-battle maniac!" Primera screamed.

"I understand." A flame started to appear in front if Syaoran's foot before his flame kudan materialized beside him. "I accept this challenge!"

Shougo grinned and pulled down his goggles to cover his eyes. "You guys stay out of this," he told his team and they took the liberty to place bets on who will win the battle.

"Ready…" Shougo said, their kudans opening its mouths and gathering power. "GO!" Each kudan let out a powerful blast of their power and it exploded when they met because the power was so great. That explosion caused some of the rubble from the collapsing Hanshin Palace to drop down on Syaoran.

"WATCH OUT!" Masayoshi shouted as a huge piece of the building was heading for Syaoran's direction. Syaoran jumped high into the air and split the boulder in half with only one kick. He then landed on the ground below where Primera's fans that have now run away used to be staying.

"He's pretty cool, Syaoran-kun," Fai said as he leaned forward to look at the boy closer. The three of them were now standing at the edge of the platform.

"So he's more than just a pliable fool," Kurogane grunted. "He seemed to know that you're not just a silly person."

Fai smiled. "It seems like he's not just a child with an interest for archeology. He's still very young, but I can say that he's been through a lot.

"Mokona!" Syaoran called. "Can you feel the feather's presence?"

"It's not powerful enough!"

Syaoran stretched his hand in front of his and a huge blast of fire came out of his fist and it caught Shougo off guard. He held out his own hand and his kudan let out a blast of water but it was too late.

Shougo and his kudan were blown away by the power of the blast. Before he even hit something, his kudan caught him and set him back on the ground. "Wow. That was the first time that I flew that far…"

"SHOUGO-KUN!" Primera screamed, her eyes full of tears.

"I'm fine, so stop screaming my name!" he shouted back at her. He smiled at Syaoran and acted cool, even though he was already dripping wet because of his kudan. "You sure are strong. Kudan are controlled by the heart, what is it that makes yours so strong?"

"There is something important that I must do," he replied.

Shougo smirked and he warned everyone to get out of the way before his kudan opened its mouth and let out the biggest wave of water that swallowed the ground where Syaoran stood.

"SYAORAN-KUN!" Masayoshi shouted. He was panicking while Syaoran's companions just stood there silently and watched.

"Syaoran is right there," Mokona said and pointed at the water. The water was starting to evaporate fast and then there was Syaoran, surrounded by his kudan who shaped itself into a ball to protect its owner. He stood up and his kudan returned to its original form beside him.

More rubble from the Hanshin Palace started to collapse only this time it wasn't falling on the ground. It was about to hit the part of the roof where Primera, Mokona, and Masayoshi were. Primera screamed and for some reason Masayoshi didn't back away. Instead, he used his own body to protect Primera and Mokona.

Ella watched with huge eyes as Masayoshi's kudan grew and grew until it stood twice as tall as the Hanshin Palace.

"The feather…" Ella said as she stared at the sparkly thing at the center of the huge kudan. Mokona felt it as she opened her eyes.

"The feather! The feather is in that kudan!"

"The feather is in that kudan?" Kurogane asked in disbelief. "That kudan?"

"That's why Mokona couldn't find it when the kudan was searching for people, because it was at its strongest when protecting its master," Fai thought aloud.

Masayoshi's kudan had gone berserk and started blasting at random directions while holding its owner on its hand.

The three used their kudans to bring them near Syaoran.

"What the hell is wrong with that kudan?" Kurogane asked.

"The feather's power is so strong that Masayoshi-kun can't control it anymore," Syaoran explained.

"What are you going to do now?" the ninja grunted.

"I'm going to get Sakura's feather back," Syaoran said and walked towards the direction of the berserk kudan.

"How do you intend to fight something that big?"

"I won't die!" Syaoran said, turning around to look at them. "I still have something to do, so I can't die yet."

Fai sighed and smiled. "You can count on Kuro-pi to handle things here. You go ahead and do what you must."

Syaoran smiled and nodded. "I'll see you later then." And with that, he jumped together with his kudan and flew towards the feather.

"Syaoran-kun has strength in a lot of different ways," Fai said softly. "I think I get the feeling why the flame kudan came to him."

The kudan's chest started sparkling and Syaoran could be seen standing on top of a lamp post with his flame kudan on his side. His kudan started to envelop him and from afar he looked like he was burning. Ella watched as the boy jumped high and punched the chest of the kudan where it was sparkling. The kudan's chest caught on fire. Even though Syaoran was surrounded by fire and was being burnt, he showed no sign of complaint. He pushed on forward to the center, where the feather was. With the consent of Masayoshi, the fire that Syaoran was controlling got bigger and he pushed until he grabbed that source of sparkling. As soon as the source of power was pulled out of it, Masayoshi's kudan returned to its former, smaller state. The flame left Syaoran and moved quickly to catch Masayoshi from hitting the ground. Even though he was covered in ash and slight burns, Syaoran wore a big smile, holding the feather tightly against his chest.

Shougo's kudan flew above them and brought down rain to stop some of the burning rubble. "The least I could do is keep this place from catching on fire," he said.

The four of them walked towards Syaoran, who stood up slowly and had a big triumphant smile on his face. "Let's go home!" he said with a huge smile.

This time they ran all the way back to the apartment. Syaoran was practically jumping as he did a sharp turn to enter the building, pausing to announce to Sorata and Arashi who stood outside that he had found the feather.

He hurriedly ran to the floor where Sakura was sleeping and threw off his shoes. The other three were not far behind and watched the feather enter Sakura's chest. After a few minutes, she opened her eyes and revealed emerald green irises.

"Sakura!" Syaoran said when she opened her eyes, his hand tightly holding hers.

She looked at him with eyes that seemed to be in a daze. "Who are you?" she asked.

The three of them watched as Syaoran froze for a moment and set her hand back down on the bed. He looked like he was about to cry but he smiled warmly at the girl.

"I'm called Syaoran… and you… are her highness, Princess Sakura," he said. He helped the girl sit up. "If you'd be so kind to listen, I will explain. You are a princess from another world."

Sakura didn't have any emotion in her voice or on her face. "Another…world?"

Syaoran nodded. "At the moment, you've lost your memory. It's in order to find your memories that you're travelling between worlds."

"By myself?" she asked.

"No… You have travelling companions."

"Are you one of those…?"

"Yes."

"You're doing this for a total stranger?"

Ella could swear she saw that Syaoran was about to cry. He forced a smile on his lips. "I am."

Fai decided that it was time to finally give Syaoran a break and he entered the room. "Princess Sakura, I am pleased to make your acquaintance. I am Fai D. Fluorite at your service." His hand lightly touched Syaoran's shoulder and finally let him leave the room. Ella waved to the princess. "Hi. The name's Ella."

Sakura looked at Kurogane and he just grunted. "I'm Kurogane."

Fai took the little white creature on his shoulder and handed her to Sakura. "And this cute, fluffy one is…"

"Mokona Modoki!" Mokona said, raising a hand. "You can call me Mokona!"

Syaoran took this opportunity to leave the room. There he stood in the street, letting the rain wash away his tears.

The three of them had decided to leave Sakura in Mokona's watch and they left the room to go back to their own.

"At that moment, I was sure he would cry," Fai said in a soft voice. "It seems that Sakura-chan is the most important person in the world to Syaoran-kun. So when she said "Who are you?" I felt certain he would cry."

"I wonder if he's crying now…" Ella said, almost a whisper as they watched Syaoran with his shoulders hunched and his kudan out and circling him.

Kurogane folded his arms against his chest. "If he wants to keep on crying, he'll just have to get stronger. Strong enough so he won't be crying in the end."

"But, I think there's a certain strength needed to be able to cry when you should," Ella said softly.

She stared outside the window and noticed that their kudans were now there with Syaoran, protecting him from the rain.

* * *

><p>It was the day of their departure for another world where they could find another fragment of Sakura's memory. The five of them stood in front of the apartment building, wearing the clothes that they originally wore when they were in the witch's shop. Sorata and his wife Arashi stood in front of them.<p>

"So you're leaving?" Sorata asked in a sad tone. "You never even got a chance to taste the collaboration cooking of my honey and I!"

Sakura stood there in the middle and her eyes were half closed. Ella approached her and gave her a smile. "Hey, you okay?"

Sakura nodded and rubbed her eye with her hand. "I'm just a little sleepy."

Ella noticed that Syaoran was looking at Sakura when Kurogane approached him. "Don't look down now! If you have something you must do, you must keep looking forward."

Syaoran nodded.

Mokona floated above the ground and opened her large wings and a magic circle appearing underneath her.

"Thank you very much," Syaoran said as the wind started to make a wall around them.

Arashi smiled. "I hope that you will find Sakura's feathers in the next world."

A powerful vacuum inside Mokona's mouth sucked them inside the little creature and burped before folding her wings and moving on to another dimension.

* * *

><p>So that's my third chapter and final one in Hanshin. Hope you liked it! :) (Although in my opinion it seemed kinda crappy. I don't know… I just don't like Hanshin that much… But it'll get better eventually! I promise to do my best but I'm still a newbie at this. Orz I'll do better in Koryo...hopefully.)<p>

Review please!


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Sorry for the long wait. My life has been chaotic (and still kinda is) since I'm transferring schools so I haven't had a lot of time. I start school tomorrow and I want to post something before then. And just to let you know, updates will take longer now that school is starting.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tsubasa Chronicles.**

And onto the chapter!

* * *

><p>w h e n they arrived in the next world, they crashed on top of various crates and boxes. As Ella glanced around, she noticed that it looked like an Asian marketplace.<p>

"This isn't my world," she heard Kurogane say behind her.

"It's not mine either," Fai said.

Ella noticed that everyone was staring at them. There were also a group of armed men. Well, if holding sticks counted as being armed.

A fat man stepped forward, in front of Sakura. "Who the hell are you? Answer me! Where did you come from?" He grabbed Sakura's arm and yanked so hard it looked like her arm would break. Almost immediately, Syaoran landed his foot on the man's face, sending him flying several feet back. Apparently Ella wasn't the only one impressed. Fai wore an amused smile while Kurogane gave an appreciative grunt.

"How dare you! Do you know who you just kicked?" the man shouted, glaring at Syaoran.

"STOP!" Ella looked up to where the loud scream came from. She saw a little girl standing on top of a wall.

"Don't pick on people, you idiot!" she screamed again. Ella could tell it wasn't the first time she confronted the fat man because he looked like he knew her.

"Chunyiang!" he yelled back. "Do you know who's you're talking to?" After a lot of yelling, Ella found out that the fat man was the "Ryanban's" son and the place was called Koryo.

"Wow! Just a moment ago, everyone was looking at us!" Fai said. Everyone had returned to their regular routines. A few were picking up the fruits and vegetables they landed on. Ella picked up what looked like a small potato on the ground next to her.

"This should be all of it," Syaoran said as he stacked a crate of what looked like potatoes.

"You missed some here," the girl said, holding some in her arms.

"Oh," Syaoran said. "You're the girl from earlier."

"You look weird," she then said.

"Hahahaha! Did you hear that Kuro-rin? She just said you looked funny!" Fai said with a grin.

"If I'm weird, then you're weird too!" the ninja yelled.

The little girl stood there for a moment, staring at them. Then she grabbed Sakura's hand and started running. Syaoran, looking somewhat panicked, dashed after them. Fai shrugged and followed them.

"I'm sick of this! Why can't you guys stay at the same place for two seconds!" Kurogane yelled before going himself. Ella followed shortly after. They arrived at a decent-looking house. Syaoran and Sakura were sitting in front of the girl. Kurogane was sitting in a corner reading some book. Fai was looking at flowers in the windowsill. Ella sat down against a wall.

"Don't you have something to say?" the little girl asked Syaoran.

"Um, we just arrived in this country, and then we met you…" Syaoran said.

"You really have nothing to say?" she asked. When Syaoran didn't reply, the little girl backed away and bowed her head in discouragement.

"Thinking about it carefully, there's no way these kids could be the amenosa," she muttered to herself.

"Amenosa?" Sakura asked sleepily.

"The amenosa are spies that work for the government," she explained. "They investigate each region and each region's Ryanban, and if those Ryanban are indulging in their personal interests or greed. They make sure the Ryanban doesn't oppress people using political influence either…they travel from country to country, doing their job."

Mokona chose this moment to jump off Fai's head and yell, "Mito Koumon!"

"Um…what is that thing?" the little girl asked.

"Mokona is Mokona!" she yelled, making the girl fall over.

"She's our mascot," Fai explained. "Or our idol."

"Mokona is a popular idol!" she exclaimed, twirling around.

"Anyways, we should introduce ourselves, er…" he hesitated, trying to find the girl's name.

"Chunyiang," she said. It sounded Korean to Ella.

"I'm Fai," he introduced himself. "And this is Syaoran-kun, Sakura-chan, Ella-chan, and also this is Kuro-puu!"

"It's Kurogane!" the ninja shouted.

"Anyway," Fai continued, ignoring him, "the ruler of this place is evil; therefore people are waiting for the amenosa to show up and save them?"

"He's the worst!" Chunyiang answered with hate in her eyes. "And he…my mother…"

Suddenly, something knocked hard against the door.

"Who could that be?" Fai asked, standing up.

"Don't go outside!" Chunyiang shouted just as the door swung open and wind rushed in. Being near the door, Ella was blown back and shrieked in surprise. She felt someone roughly grab her arm and looked up to see Kurogane. Thanks to him, she had avoided being blown up with the roof. As debris fell from the ceiling, Syaoran used his own body to protect Sakura. Eventually the wind died out, leaving them all stranded-like in the wrecked house.

"That wasn't normal wind, was it?" Fai asked.

"It's the Ryanban!" Chunyiang shouted. "That guy! Now he really did it!"

* * *

><p>Ella sat on the roof, hammering planks of wood together. Next to her, Kurogane was doing the same. She wasn't exactly sure if she was doing it right. She was just hammering a nail into a piece of wood and hoping it stayed on. She puffed out her cheeks and blew some air up, effectively moving her bangs out of her eyes. This was harder than she expected it to be. Kurogane made it look effortless, but then again, he was a big strong guy and she was a regular girl. Stronger than most, sure, but she didn't have an endless supply of energy. After an hour or two of working hard under the sun, she was getting exhausted.<p>

"Why do I have to fix somebody's house?" Kurogane's gruff voice brought her out of her thoughts.

"Because they offered us shelter for a night," Fai replied as he handed the ninja a plank of wood.

"It's amazing that she lives here alone…"

"Yeah. She said her mother died," Fai said. Ella's heart immediately went out to Chunyiang. It was hard to lose one's own mother, especially to death. She knew the feeling all too well.

"How long are we going to stay here?"

"It depends on Mokona!" Fai answered with a grin.

"Why does that little bun always side with that brat?" he growled as he hit the boards crazily.

"She always sides with him because Syaoran, Sakura, Mokona and Chunyiang went to town to spy. I really hope they get some info," Fai told him. Hearing his words, Kurogane calmed down.

"But is it okay? That princess is always sleepy," he said.

"It's not enough, the feather," Fai said with a look of sadness. "It's only two. In order to get back all of her memories, she'll need more."

"But I think the princess has lost much more than just memories." His expression went serious again. "She doesn't have the thoughts of herself. That's why she came with us without asking why. And even if all the feathers return…" He paused. "The memories she had with Syaoran won't."

"He will look for them," Fai continued, looking at the sky. "Syaoran will. To find the feathers and go to different worlds." Pause. "Even though they are many challenges ahead."

"At least let's wait for them while repairing the house. You never know, they might bring presents," he said joyfully, effectively shifting the mood.

"But…" Kurogane started. Ella could clearly see a vein popping out of his forehead. She braced herself for the explosion. "Why are you relaxing and drinking tea?" He pointed an accusing finger at Fai who was, in fact, drinking tea and lounging on the floor. Fai looked up innocently, his big puppy eyes looking at Kurogane.

"Well… I was thinking it'd be better to watch Kuro-tan and Ella-chan working together. I thought you'd like the physical challenge," he said matter-of-factly. "I was thinking of you, really." Kurogane threw his hammer and it hit Fai's head. It apparently didn't cause much damage because Fai didn't seem to react.

"Do something too!" the ninja shouted.

"But I'm taking a break now!" Kurogane groaned frustratedly before dropping down into the house. He stomped to the corner and sat down to read his magazine. Ella followed shortly after. She pulled out her iPod from her bag. It was still full of batteries, much to her relief. She didn't have her charger with her so she couldn't charge it when it finally did die out. But then it would have to depend on the world they were in. This world didn't seem to have electricity. She put it back into her bag and laid down on the floor, staring at the sky through the hole in the roof. Bored, she played with her locket. It didn't hold the same comfort as it did before. Maybe because the picture wasn't there anymore. She sighed and closed her eyes, picturing the picture. Ella was seven years old at the time the photo was taken. Her wavy hair was completely black and fell to her shoulders. She had been wearing a pretty light blue dress that made her look like a princess.

Behind her were her parents. Her father had messy dark brown hair and brown eyes. He was smiling but his face was turned to the side. Her mother was as beautiful as ever. Silky black hair fell to her waist and dark brown colored her irises. She would've been smiling but her father kissed her at the last second. Her face wore a surprised expression. Ella was smiling a toothy smile and her parents each had a hand on her shoulder. The teen opened her eyes. The picture had been the only thing she had to remember her parents by.

"Welcome back! How was it?" Fai exclaimed as Syaoran, Sakura, and Chunyiang walked into the house. Ella took in their appearance. Syaoran had a nasty wound above his right eye, and Chunyiang looked pretty upset.

"What happened?" Fai asked Chunyiang as she handed a first aid kit to Sakura, who proceeded to treat Syaoran's wound. They listened as Chunyiang told them the events of their trip. Apparently they found the Ryanban's son hurting people because they couldn't pay the taxes. He had a whip on them, and Sakura was going to shield them with her body. Then Syaoran fought him and the Ryanban sent his wind again which was how he got hurt.

"Why don't you attack if you hate him so much?" Kurogane asked.

"But you can't lay a finger on the Ryanban!" Chunyiang exclaimed. "The palace that Ryanban lives in has a secret spell that no one can penetrate!"

"So that's the mysterious power Mokona felt," Fai concluded. Mokona nodded.

"There's a lot of mysterious powers, and I can't figure out if any comes from the feather," she admitted.

"How about the son?" Fai said lightly. "Take him as a hostage or something?" Kurogane turned to him with an almost amused expression painted on his face.

"You just said something very dark," he grumbled. Fai turned toward him, smiling innocently.

"No!" Chunyiang shook her head vigorously. "The Ryanban uses his secret weapon to defend the palace, if we did something to his son…!" She looked panicked at the idea. Ella guessed the Ryanban was an overprotective father.

"Yesterday and today," Fai said. "Syaoran-kun was attacked by the secret weapon. From what I heard, a year ago the Ryanban suddenly got a lot of power. Could it have to do with Sakura-chan's feather?" At these words, Syaoran straightened and all the muscles in his body tensed. Kurogane didn't look convinced though.

"It doesn't match," he said. "The feathers of the memories were scattered recently, right?"

"The dimensions are different," Fai explained. "Maybe time passes differently too." Syaoran slowly stood up.

"I'll go check if the feather is at the Ryanban's," he said. His eyes were determined.

"Wait!" Sakura grabbed his sleeve and didn't seem to want to let go anytime soon. "Syaoran-kun, you're hurt!"

"I'm fine," he assured her.

"But…"

"Don't worry!" He smiled. "If the feather is really there, I'll go get it for you."

"Syaoran-kun…" she said softly, letting go.

"Wait a bit," Fai said. He saw Syaoran's discomfort and smiled. "Don't worry. I'm not going to try to stop you. But the Ryanban's secret powers are pretty strong, so just going in there won't work. You need at least a spell to break the entrance."

"Can you do something about it?" Kurogane asked from his corner.

"Impossible!" Fai answered joyfully.

"Then don't act like you have a plan!"

"Let's ask Yuuko!" Mokona chirped. Something beamed out of Mokona's jewel. It grew larger and an image take place in the middle of it.

"Oh, Mokona. What is it?"

Chunyiang grabbed Sakura and shrieked when she heard the voice coming from the image.

"Holy crap!" Ella exclaimed in surprise.

"She speaks!" Chunyiang yelped. Everyone looked astonished. Being the first to recover, the mage explained the situation to Yuuko.

"I see," the witch said. "So you want to break the spell and go into the palace."

"Yup," Fai answered.

"But you don't have to ask me. Can't you use spells, Fai?" Yuuko pointed out.

"I gave you the core of my powers," Fai answered.

"The tattoo I took is the 'core to keep in the power'" Yuuko answered. "It is not your powers."

"But still," he said with a smile. "I have a rule not to use spells without it." He smiled through the whole thing, but Ella could tell he was thinking about something painful. His eyes were almost glowing with sadness.

"Fine. I'll send something that can break the spell of the palace, but I need something of value."

"Is there anything I can give-" Syaoran started, only to be interrupted by Fai.

"How about this?" he said, pulling out his staff. "It's used for spells, but I don't use it." Yuuko paused in consideration.

"Okay. Give it to Mokona," she finally said. Fai did as she said. To everyone's astonishment, Mokona opened her mouth and swallowed it whole! Behind Ella, Chunyiang yelped and clung to Sakura like her life depended on it. Then Mokona's mouth opened again and a strange brown ball gushed out. Syaoran caught it in midair.

"So this is the thing that breaks the secret power…" he said, looking skeptically at the ball. The ray of light retreated back in Mokona's jewel.

"Oh yeah!" Chunyiang suddenly said. "We won a bunch of clothes in the market." She pulled the baskets of items they had gotten. She handed out the country's clothes to the three. The men and female were pushed into separate rooms to change. Ella's skirt had a slit on the side with somewhat baggy pants underneath. The sleeves were a bit long but she'd survive.

After a bit of arguing, they managed to convince Syaoran to invade the palace the next day after a night of rest.

* * *

><p>"NO!" The word greeted Ella as soon as she stepped out into the morning sun. Chunyiang and Sakura were facing the guys. They had just ate breakfast after a night of sleep and were about to leave to invade the palace. Chunyiang was supposed to stay and watch Sakura. Apparently, she was against the idea.<p>

"I want to go to the Ryanban's place too!" she yelled.

"The Ryanban's palace is under a spell," Fai tried to explain. "It will be very dangerous."

"I know that! I want to come too!" Chunyiang responded in a booming voice, making Ella cringe a little.

"Hmmm… That's quite a headache," he said, still grinning. He then turned around and glanced at Kurogane. The ninja looked surprised to be brought in the conversation.

"I'm not good with kids," he simply stated, turning his head away to avoid Fai's eyes.

"That's because you're the type to be easily embarrassed," Mokona said joyfully from atop Fai's head. Kurogane's features seemed to darken.

"Why don't you ask her?" he yelled, pointing at Ella.

"What?" she said, surprised to be dragged into the situation. Fai turned expectantly towards her. She took a look at Chunyiang. She was shivering from anger and wore a look that said 'don't you dare get in my way'.

"I'm not really good with kids either…"

"Please let me come! I want to defeat the Ryanban!" Chunyaing screamed. "I want to avenge my mother!" Tears of rage pooled in her eyes and her screaming became more desperate. "We'll go together! It's alright, right? Syaoran!" The boy had kept a closed face throughout the entire thing. Then, without even looking at her, he brushed her off.

"No," he said in a cold voice, turning away. "You will wait here with Sakura-hime." He then left, without even a glance in Chunyiang's direction. She looked crushed, head bowed, muscles limp in defeat. Fai and Kurogane followed Syaoran, giving the girls nothing more than a sideways glance.

"It's because I can't do powerful spells isn't it," Chunyiang said.

"No, it's not that. You can't come with us be-" Chunyiang cut her off.

"Why not? I want to avenge my mother!" she shouted.

"Killing someone for revenge isn't good," Ella said firmly. "Never was and never will. There's a lot of hate in the world and if everyone went around killing people for revenge… well, it wouldn't be very pretty right?"

"But-!"

"No buts. No revenge. No killing. It may sound like a good idea when you're sad and full of rage but once it's done, it just might come back to haunt you. Take it from someone who knows what she's talking about." There was a reluctant understanding in the girl's eyes but it suddenly changed at Ella's last sentence. She looked up cautiously at her.

"Did you…kill someone for revenge?" she asked. Ella remained silent and changed the subject, effectively avoiding answering the question.

"I better go catch up with the others. Remember. No revenge or killing. It's not worth your time. You've got better things to do." With those words said, Ella ran off after the others. Soon she saw them.

"Hey! Wait for me!" They stop and turned, waiting for her to catch up.

"Ella-chan finally made it!" Fai cheered.

"Alright, let's go kick some butt," Ella said.

"What took you so long?" Kurogane grumbled.

"I was talking to Chunyiang. I have a feeling she's not as upset about being left behind.

When they arrived at the palace, Kurogane pushed against the door. It opened up to reveal… the village? It was a bird's eye view of Chunyiang's village!

"We're in the sky!" Mokona chirped.

"The castle is protected by a spell," Fai explained. "I suppose the other entrances are like this as well. And that is why…" Dramatic pause. "It's time for the present the Dimension Witch gave us to make an appearance!" Syaoran took the "present" from out of his shirt. They all stared at the ball skeptically for a few seconds.

"How does it work?" Syaoran finally asked.

"Throw it!" Mokona sang.

"Huh?" Syaoran and Kurogane said in unison.

"Throw it with all your strength! Throw it onto the castle!" she explained.

After a short conversation with Mokona, Syaoran threw the ball in the air. Then he kicked the ball, sending it flying through the sky. Before their eyes, it splat in midair, spreading to cover an invisible dome around the palace. Then it disappeared. In front of them, the door now led to a huge hallway that seemed to have no end. They walked for about a good ten minutes and there was still no sign of an exit.

"How long are we supposed to walk in this hallway?" Kurogane grunted angrily. Fai was in the front, putting his hand like a visor over his eyes, like he was trying to look for something in the distance.

"I'm trying the best I can, but I still can't figure out where this thing leads to," he said. Mokona, who was on Fai's head, did a little dance.

"Kurogane is so useless!" she called.

"Stop perching on our heads!" the ninja yelled back. Mokona just laughed and bounced onto Fai's shoulder. Ella slowed and shifted her gaze to Syaoran. He was just standing there, staring at a dot on the floor.

"We just came back to the same spot," he said unexpectedly. They all turned towards him.

"It does look like the same…" Kurogane remarked.

"But we've been walking straight along the hall," Fai protested. Syaoran bent down and picked up a small black stone from the floor.

"I dropped this at the entrance," he explained.

"Hyuu! Syaoran-kun is good!" Fai said, impressed. Kurogane stared at him with a mix of disgust and surprise. Ella gave him a similar look.

"Hyuu?" Ella repeated.

"It's not whistling!" Kurogane added. Fai just looked up at them with a smile.

"I don't know how to whistle," he admitted.

"So you make up a weird sound," Ella said.

"Yep!" She shook her head and sigh.

"Men," she said disdainfully, shaking her head. Ella watched as Fai moved the wall on the right. He brushed his fingers against the wall and closed his eyes. Her eyes widened. His clothes and hair were flowing in an inexistent breeze. As she gazed down, she noticed his feet weren't even touching the ground. He then opened his eyes.

"…is it here?" she heard him mumble, sounding absent.

"Did you find anything?" Syaoran asked from behind him. Fai's eyes fluttered. The imaginary breeze was gone, his feet back on the ground.

"This kind of magic only exists in places were magical powers are the strongest," Fai explained, pointing at the wall.

"So maybe the Ryanban's in there?" Kurogane seemed suddenly interested.

"I can't be sure."

"Shouldn't you be unable to use magic?" Kurogane asked Fai, looking skeptic.

"It's not magic, it's intuition."

"Are we going to see what's behind the wall or are we stand here and talk?" Ella asked. She flinched as Kurogane punched the wall down. The force of the blow surprised her. She followed Kurogane into a humongous room. It was almost bare except for vapory drapes hanging in the middle of the room. Ella could barely make out a silhouette.

"Who's there?" Syaoran called out to the figure. It moved a bit, pushing the drapes to the side. "It" turned out to be a woman. Her long hair was put up in a ridiculous up-do, and she had an elaborate hair ornament. Her black dress flowed to the ground.

"You have finally arrived. You nameless wanderers."

"Who are you?" Kurogane demanded imperiously. The woman sighed.

"After 100 years of existence, humans are still so similar to insects. Be careful how you use that mouth," she cautioned. "That is what I would like to say, but it's been a long time since I've had guests, so I'll tolerate it."

"So spit out where the Ryanban is, then," Kurogane ordered. Ella shot him a look. That did not seem like the right thing to do. The woman didn't seem to mind though because she chuckled.

"Really cute little children," she said.

"We are seeking something that may be in this castle," Syaoran tried. "So could you please tell us where the Ryanban is?" The woman stared at him for a few seconds before speaking.

"You have very pleasant eyes…" she said, holding out her hand towards Syaoran. "Very bright. But I can't answer your question. And I'm afraid that I cannot let you pass this place."

"Uh, I get the impression that you'll be rough with us so we can't pass, right?" Fai asked.

"Right," the woman agreed.

In a blink of an eye, their surroundings changed. Instead of the large room they were in just a moment ago, Ella was now standing on a pillar, several meters above what seemed to be a lake. The woman was still at the same spot, but traded her drapes for a pagoda. She glanced around. The walls seemed to have disappeared. The others were all standing on their individual pillars, and strange spheres were floating around in the air.

"An illusion?" Kurogane asked.

"No," the woman replied. Though she was far away, Ella could still hear her voice as if she was right beside her. "Illusions are used to confuses my opponents, whereas this…" She showed her surroundings, "is not just pretty!" As if to prove her point, she flicked a sphere towards Syaoran, who protected himself with his arms. The sphere exploded on contact, splattering water all around him. Except water didn't sizzle and burn off the person's clothes. Syaoran looked surprised as he stared at his dissolving sleeves.

"The damages my secret art inflicts is real," the witch explained.

"So, if we get badly hurt…" Fai started.

"You die," she concluded. At that moment, all the spheres began moving, plunging one way or another. Ella leapt from pillar to pillar like an acrobat, wearing a focused look. She crouched down and a droplet whizzed right by her, missing her shoulder by an inch.

A pained exclamation attracted her attention. Syaoran was jumping back to a pillar, his foot badly burnt.

"The pond and the droplets have the same destructive power," the witch explained.

"If you fall into the pool, you'll melt!" Kurogane warned.

"Oh really? I couldn't tell. Thanks for pointing out that obvious fact," Ella said sarcastically as she dodged yet another droplet. She looked up to see the two men sporting sticks, using them to swat away the droplets.

"Hey! I need a weapon too!" she exclaimed as she jumped back from a droplet.

"Ella-chan!" a shout came several moments later. Ella lifted her head to see a stick thrown at her. She quickly caught to stop it from hitting her. As a result, she was thrown off balance. She unconsciously took a step back to balance herself. Instead of a flat surface, she hit air. Her eyes widened as she fell backwards and plummeted to the pool of acid water below.

"Ella-san!" she heard Syaoran call. She paid him no mind. She shifted her body so that she was falling faster towards the pool. When she was near, she extended her stick and pushed herself upwards.

"Are you okay?" Syaoran asked. Ella nodded.

"Hyuu! Way to go Ella-chan!" Fai called. He glanced down at the stick that was quickly dissolving. "Good thing you had that huh?"

Ella raised an eyebrow at him. "Good thing? If you hadn't thrown it at me, I wouldn't have lost balance and fell over in the first place."

"But you asked for a weapon!"

"You didn't have to throw it so hard!" He just chuckled.

"Well, no point in staying to play with water forever," Fai stated, changing the subject. Ella groaned frustratedly. "Syaoran-kun! You and Mokona go first!" he continued.

"But you, Kurogane-san, and Ella-san won't last!" he protested.

'Well, thanks for the support,' Ella thought.

"Yeah, but nothing will get done if we're all trapped down here," Fai replied. "So you should move that foot and get ahead of us. There are more important things that you must do, Syaoran-kun." Ella saw him hesitate as he took a look around him. Just as he opened his mouth to protest, Ella spoke.

"Just go! We'll be fine. Unlike you, I have some confidence that I'll last," she told him harshly. She didn't mean to be rude but the truth was the truth. If they all stayed with the witch, nothing would get done.

"Don't worry," Fai added, tapping Kurogane's shoulder. "Kuro-muu will take care of things here, somehow."

"Why me!" he yelled back.

"Thanks," Syaoran said a few moments later.

"The magic is weaker up there," Fai pointed towards the inexistent ceiling. "You should be able to kick your way through."

"Is Syaoran sure he can get that high?" Mokona asked in a worried voice as she poked out of his shirt. Syaoran nodded reassuringly. At that moment, the witch spoke.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she complained, her voice not showing emotion. "But don't let me get too bored, little children."

"Sorry," Fai called out to her. "We'll be done soon." Ella had no idea why he was apologizing to the person who was trying to kill them.

Jumping from his pillar to the end of Kurogane's stick, Syaoran crouched down and waited. Kurogane swung his stick over his head, launching Syaoran upwards. She heard a crash and knew he was through.

"You two are so cool! Hyuu!" Fai cheered. Kurogane stared at him like he was an idiot, which he was.

"One person escaped. Couldn't be helped," the witch said. "I'll just have to teach the remaining children a lesson…" Really? Ella was sick and tired of being called children. With Syaoran, it was understandable somewhat. Now it was two men in their twenties or thirties or so and a seventeen-year-old. They were not children.

The witch lifted her hand up and the droplets explode above them. Ella muffled a yelp as the acid rained on them. They were stinging every spot of skin that happened to show at that time. A sizzle announced that her clothes as well as her skin were burning.

"Looks like this is getting to be a pretty serious crisis," Fai noticed. "That water does hurt," he continued, sounding like it didn't really bother him.

"If it hits us, our clothes and our bodies will melt," Kurogane agreed.

"You will not be able to escape the same way that child just did, little children," the witch warned. Then she sent a large droplet towards the pillar Fai and Kurogane were standing on. Out of habit, Fai poked it with his stick to send it away. But instead of flying in another direction, the droplet erupted. Fai didn't see it coming. He didn't have time to move.

Kurogane did though.

Reacting like a spring, he jumped to the side to avoid the acid, whacking Fai in the stomach with his stick and sending him flying out of the way.

"Kuro-muu, you're meaaan!" Fai whined when he landed on another pillar.

"If I wouldn't of done that, you would be burnt by now," Kurogane grunted back.

"But you could have pushed me in a nicer waaaay," Fai replied, teasing him. Ella rolled her eyes but smiled a little. Even in the face of death, he could still find a way to tease and annoy someone.

"You are very clever, little children," the witch said softly. "It has been a while…" She lifted her hand and the acid then began to come together, forming a large acidic hand above them.

"I guess I won't be bored until this is over…" the witch concluded. Suddenly, all the droplets massed together to form a huge palm of acid.

"The only person that was able to bear up like this in the past was that Shinban from Ryonfi," the witch informed them.

"That's Chunyiang's mother, isn't it?" Fai asked. Really? Ella hadn't been paying too much attention to what Chunyiang had told them.

"She said she had a girl named that," the witch confirmed. "What this country truly needs is not that stupid Ryanban and his son, but people like that Shinban and you children." Ella thought it was meant to be a compliment. But then she wasn't really paying attention at the moment.

"Right now, I cannot leave this place," the witch continued. "I cannot reason, and my spirit has been manipulated like a puppet. My own heart doesn't tell me what's right or wrong."

"I regret us parting, little children," she added in a sweet but resigned voice. "But soon, it will be time to say farewell."

"Whoa! Isn't this what you would call a most dangerous crisis?" Fai asked to no one in particular. His expression puzzled Ella. He didn't seem bothered by the fact that they might die any second.

"Well, if we just stand here and take it, we'll die," Kurogane said.

"That's a huge problem," Fai said. "Since I don't want to die!"

"You don't want to die, and yet you won't use your magic, even in this crisis?" Kurogane asked.

"Yup! Sorry."

"It doesn't matter to me," Kurogane replied with a defiant face.

"What about Kuro-mi?"

"I'm not gonna die either, 'cause I need to go back to Japan," he answered.

"That white bun won't leave until we find that princess's feather, so we better find it quick before we go to the next world," the ninja said a few seconds later.

"I don't want to stay too long in the same place either," Fai admitted.

"Why?" Kurogane asked.

"Because, if the person sleeping underwater in my old world awakens, then I might get caught." As the words left his lips, though he had a faint smile on his face, Ella could see pain in his eyes. A distant pain, like it had been there for a long time and he thought he got used to it. Fear, too.

"So now I need to run around all the worlds…" he explained with a smile. A fake smile to hide his real emotions.

"Are you done with your last conversation?" the witch interrupted. Her voice rang like a bell.

"So… what should we do?" Fai asked, returning to normal.

"Yo." Kurogane had an idea. As she listened to it, Ella couldn't help but notice a few flaws.

"Will that really work?" she asked.

"You tell me," he said. Ella shrugged.

"Results may vary now that I'm here and changing things up. Oh, I'd use some extra padding if I were you. Don't tell me you didn't notice her claws."

"Bye-bye," the witch interrupted. As the palm of acid moved to squish them, Fai and Ella pounced towards the witch.

"Willing to rush your deaths?" the witch asked. She looked a little surprised, but not the least bit threatened. Ella wore an inexpressive face. Beside her, Fai was smiling as usual.

Using the two as support, Kurogane jumped from behind them and rushed towards the witch. The two landed on opposite sides of the pagoda.

As Kurogane landed in front of the witch, she extended a clawed arm. Ella flinched a little. However, she saw the colorful patterns of the book. She released a sigh of relief.

"You're quite the schemer," the witch said.

Kurogane just smirked. "I hate rain." He lifted his stick above his head. "So stop it." He swung his stick down towards her, and it hit her in the forehead with such force that the centerpiece jewel of her head ornament shattered into pieces. Ella waited for something to happen. In a heartbeat, they were in the room again, the witch and Kurogane standing in the circle formed by the drapes.

"If you do another strange move…" he warned her. Surprisingly, she got up and gently kissed him. Kurogane's face was almost laughable. For a second, he looked like someone who just got kissed for the first time. Eyes wide, breath taken away… She thought she even saw him blush. She watched as his expression reverted to its normal hard-faced self.

"You!" he growled. "What spell did you put on me this time!"

"That was my thanks," she said, almost flirting. Ella had to muffle her laugh behind her hand. They were so weird!

"I was being controlled by the Ryanban by the spell in the stone you just broke," she explained.

"Oh, I see. So because Kuro-pon broke it…" Fai started.

"I am now free," the witch concluded. "You children have a lot of spirit. I'm sorry for blocking your way." Not really. Ella thought she still had fun playing with them. "You wanted to know where the Ryanban is, right? Those bastards are on the top floor of this castle. I guess the smallest child arrived there first." Ella thought she saw a hint of a smile. But it faded away as she continued. "But they're going to resort to some cowardly, unfair trick again, those misers."

"Well, thanks," Ella said, heading for the exit. Fai and Kurogane followed her.

When they arrived on the top floor, Ella was surprised at what she saw. It wasn't what she expected. The Ryanban was kneeling in front of Syaoran, holding the feather in front of him as a pitiful defense. Beside them were Chunyiang and Sakura. Chunyiang was holding a mirror and quivering in anger. But what surprised her the most was the fact that half the village seemed to be there also.

"Why are there so many people here?" Fai asked. Ella shrugged.

"How am I supposed to know?" she answered.

"You guys are slow!" Mokona whined, swiftly jumping onto Kurogane's head.

"Sorry! Many things have happened to us, too," Fai answered with a smile. Ella felt like strangling him. What did he think they were doing? Having a picnic?

"Hand over the feather." The booming voice made all heads turn towards Syaoran. He was slowly but surely approaching the Ryanban in a very menacing stance. "That's Sakura-hime's memory. Hand it over!" he ordered again. The Ryanban was almost laughable. Crawling backwards away from Syaoran, he looked like a beetle.

"Wait…Wait a second!" he cried desperately. He was going to try to save himself. Almost all bad guys tried it at the end. "With this thing, maybe we could bring back Chunyiang's mother! If I'm dead, then it can't be done!" Ella's eyes narrowed. What a jerk! He killed her and now he wanted to bring her back to save his sorry ass. She glanced at Chunyiang. Looking down, she was shivering like she was trying to contain her anger.

"YOU KILLED HER!" she exploded. "YOU KILLED MY MOTHER BECAUSE SHE WAS TRYING TO PROTECT THE TOWN!" Tears were flowing down her face in a steady stream. "Mother said it before. No matter what kind of power you use, the life that is lost cannot be restored!" Her screaming became more hysterical. "NO MATTER HOW MUCH I MISS HER, I CAN'T SEE HER ANYMORE!" Sakura was now holding her, gently trying to comfort her.

"But…" the Ryanban tried to speak.

"How dare you try to trick me!" Chunyiang silenced him.

"Chunyiang…" Syaoran started. "Do you want revenge?" At those words, the room went silent. The Ryanban was practically glowing with fear.

"It might help you erase the pain," he said slowly. "Buy this kind of person is not worthy for you to kill." Chunyiang closed her eyes and seemed to calm down by a supreme effort.

"That kind of low-life," she said. "I'll get my hands dirty if I hit him." Syaoran shrugged and took a step towards the Ryanban. The coward backed away even more.

"No…! Don't touch me!" he warned in a shrill voice. "Don't come any closer!" Ella spotted a movement behind him and smiled a little. There was a surprise for him…

Nails so long they looked like claws wrapped around his neck in a murderous embrace. A sweet and feminine voice rang all around the room, seeming to come from nowhere in particular.

"This is the end," she said in his ear. Panicked, the Ryanban tried to turn around but the witch stopped him.

"How dare you imprison me in this castle," she accused. She turned to Syaoran and the others. "Give him to me. I will treat him very nicely." The Ryanban started to panic even more than before, if it was possible.

"No…no!" he cried. Behind her, a hole seemed to appear out of the air. An icky substance surrounded it. She started to enter it, dragging the Ryanban behind her.

"Stop it!" he cried.

"Don't worry," the witch reassured him. "I'll make sure you and your son are reserved a royal treatment in the land of spells." She turned her attention to the two girls standing in the middle of the room.

"Are you the one named Chunyiang?" she asked.

"That's right," Chunyiang answered defiantly. The witch studied her.

"Your mother was a great Shinban," she told Chunyiang. "Even though she passed away when she fell in the trap set by the Ryanban, she told me she learned a lot from our battle. And she's looking forward to the day when you become a better Shinban than she was." The words seemed to give Chunyiang strength. Something to hold on to. The tears started to fall again, but this time they weren't tears of fury and pain. This time, they were tears of love.

"Be strong," the witch told her. "Strong enough to rival me."

"I will," Chunyiang answered, a new determination in her voice. "I definitely will!" Her battle cry seemed to shake the walls. The witch smiled.

"Well then, goodbye dear children," she said, disappearing through her portal.

"No!" the Ryanban cried. They both disappeared with a 'whoosh' sound. The witch's shrill laugh echoed through the entire room.

Syaoran had now picked up the feather, looking at Sakura. Letting the feather float to her, he observed with an inexpressive face. He did it. He accomplished his mission. There was no need for emotion. Sakura reached for the feather, but it went past her hand and penetrated her chest. She started to float, eyes glazed. Everyone seemed to wait for something.

The princess started to glide softly towards the ground. Syaoran caught her gently and set her on the ground. A look of tenderness passed on his face when he looked at the sleeping princess.

"So… now what?" Ella asked.

"Let's celebrate!" Fai exclaimed, causing everyone to turn to them. A smile crossed Chunyiang's face.

"Yeah! Let's celebrate!" she echoed, pumping her fist in the air. Soon everyone was cheering.

* * *

><p>The group stood in front of Chunyiang and the villagers. Syaoran and Sakura had just finished saying farewell to Chunyiang. Ella knew something happened between them, but she didn't ask. It was their business. They didn't ask what happened during their battle with the witch. Ella had a feeling Fai and Kurogane didn't want her exposing what they said in the moment of panic.<p>

She looked up and saw Mokona flying with her wings outstretched. An amused smile crept onto her face when she saw Chunyiang squeal and point at Mokona.

"Where are you going?" Chunyiang asked.

"There are still things that we must do," Syaoran said. Before everyone's astonished eyes, the whirlwind surrounded them in a thick cloud. The outside world slowly faded away.

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><p>And that concludes their time in Koryo. Was it okay? Leave a review please!<br>Also, I'll be skipping the country with the lake since nothing much happens there. Okay? Next chapter is in Jade!


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Heyy! I have returned with a chapter. This one is much shorter than any of my previous ones (a bit under 3k words). Sorry! I'm just starting to adjust to my new school. Now I can walk around without needing to stop every ten seconds to look at a map. (Yay!) I have a load of homework every day. (Boo..) It'll probably be some time until the next chapter, which I have about half of it thrown together. Anyways, you probably want me to shut up so you can read. So I will.

**Disclaimer: None of this is mine. Except for Ella and any other original stuff.**

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><p>s n o w. That was the first thing Ella noticed when the group arrived in the new world. It was everywhere. She also noticed that it was cold. In her short-sleeved top and denim shorts, it didn't take long for her to be shivering. She looked at her surroundings in an attempt to distract herself from the cold. Fai didn't look surprised by the amount of snow. Kurogane didn't seem surprised either. He was looking around, probably for a road or town. The two kids from Clow, however, looked shocked. Syaoran was staring at a snow bank like it could jump out and attack him any second. Sakura wore a rather stunned expression as she sat in the snow bank she fell in, her hair covered in flecks of snow. Mokona was sitting next to a snowball her size.<p>

Eventually they noticed that the ninja had wandered off. Thinking he found something, Syaoran suggested they follow him. They found Kurogane at an old trail. He was standing there waiting for them.

"Coming or what?" he grunted, before following the trail.

"There's something called waiting, you know," Ella said, doing her best not to stammer. She hugged herself and rubbed her arms before running to catch up with the others.

"Do you want my coat?" Sakura offered, already taking off the coat Fai gave her.

"No, I'm fine," Ella answered, pushing it away.

"Are you sure?" she asked in a worried tone.

"Yes. I actually like the cold. I can stand it better than most people," Ella reassured. The princess put the coat back on, but not before shooting her a worried glance. Ella started walking faster, hoping the movement would help build up some heat. Soon she was walking beside the ninja.

"Hey," she greeted. The ninja glanced at her and grunted in acknowledgement to her greeting. Ella sighed. He really should learn some vocabulary. She turned her attention to their surroundings. She had never seen this much snow before. It didn't snow much in California. Especially in San Francisco.

"You look like you've never seen snow," Kurogane commented.

"I haven't. It doesn't snow where I live. And I never had the money to go to where it snows," Ella admitted. They walked mostly in silence before the group arrived at what looked like a small town. They saw an inn and decided to go there for a break. As Ella walked in, she was greeted by a wave of warmth. She sighed gratefully and smiled. She then noticed that everyone in the crowded room had turned to look at them. Sakura shied from their gazes, but the others didn't seem to care. Fai walked up to one of the waitresses.

"May we have a table?" he asked her in a soft voice, flashing his brightest smile. Ella rolled her eyes at the sight of him.

The waitress blushed and hurriedly showed them to a nearby table of four. The entire room's focus moved as the group does. Sakura looked down at the four chairs, and at the five travelers.

"How will we…?" she began.

"Grab another chair," Ella answered, pulling herself a chair from a nearby table. She ended up sitting next to Kurogane. "Problem solved." She then focused her attention to the people around her. The clothing around here had grabbed her interest. All the women seemed to be wearing dresses, and the men were wearing suits. Overall, it was like something out of the…Victorian era, maybe. She realized that she would have to be wearing a dress like that if they were staying. She sighed. Just days ago she was wearing some kind of kimono and now she'd have to wear a corset. What was with this old-fashioned clothing?

A man in particular caught Ella's attention. He sat at the next table and was staring at her, detailing every inch of her body. Ella frowned, feeling a bit uncomfortable under his gaze. Judging from the empty bottles on the table, he was drunk.

Her attention shifted back to the table where Fai had just ordered some food. Since he didn't know what people ate here, he asked for five orders of the house's specialty. Ella hoped it was something good. She looked back to find the man still looking at her. The frown returned to her face. She was starting to feel uncomfortable. The man finally noticed her staring and gave her a drunken smile. Ella guessed it was supposed to charm her and win her over. Ha! Like that would happen.

Just at that moment, two waitresses came to bring their meal. Ella smiled. A nice big piece of steak sat in the middle of the plate, drowned in what looked like gravy. There was also a plate full of buns in the middle of the table. She picked up her fork and knife and began to cut herself a piece. She put it in her mouth and chewed. She smiled at the taste. This was the best food she had eaten in a while. It surely beat canned food. Beside her, Kurogane was having trouble with his utensils. Ella watched as he tried to rip it apart using two forks and smirked.

"We really do stand out," Fai stated.

"Our clothes are the major problem," Syaoran explained.

"They're so different from the clothes in this country," Fai agreed. "Especially Kuro-tan's." At those words the ninja perked up and mumbled something made unintelligible by the piece of meat in his mouth. After trying to rip it apart, it was almost like he wanted to eat it whole. Syaoran leaned over the table towards Fai.

"But, is it okay?" he asked the wizard. "This meal…"

"What's the problem?" Fai asked innocently. Syaoran took a few careful glances around and lowered his voice to barely a whisper.

"We don't have any currencies from the country," he said. Ah, yes. Ella didn't think the owner would want to hear that they wouldn't pay for their meal. Well, they could always make a run for it. That wasn't very nice though. Fai seemed to have an idea since he only waved the argument away and smiled broadly.

"That's okay!" the mage chirped. "Isn't that right, Sakura-chan?"

"Huh?" the princess answered.

A few minutes later, Sakura was seated at another table with two men and a strange deck of cards. Ella tried following the game for a while, but it got too complicated. All she knew was that they were playing for money. Now the conversations were heating up, the men wondering how Sakura was winning all the time, and many were accusing them of cheating. Fai reassured the other players, who were accusing him of some sort of devilish trick.

"We don't have time to cheat," he said, sweeping all the money in his large bag (which they had also won at the card game.) Pulling on the strings to squeeze it shut, he pointed behind him to where Kurogane was sitting.

"If you have any problem at all, please talk to the man in black over there," he said with one of his huge smiles. At his words, the ninja perked up and turned around.

"What?" he growled at the wizard. Both players quickly cowered in the corner, mumbling things like: 'No, nothing at all!' and 'Sorry to have suspected you!' Fai watched them do so with victorious smiles. Ella smirked. It wasn't their fault that Sakura was unnaturally lucky.

"Nice work, Sakura-chan!" Fai congratulated the princess as he helped her to her seat. "The most important thing now is that we have enough money," he added, his smile widening. Rolling her eyes, Ella followed them back to the table.

Suddenly, someone grabbed her arm. The girl whirled around to see the man that had been eyeing her for some time. Ella scrunched her nose. She could tell by his smell that he was drunk.

"Hey thar, pretty thing," he said, his words slurred. "Want to go have some fun?"

"No thank you," Ella said, trying to be polite and avoid making a scene. She pulled at her arm. He had a strong grip for a drunk man.

"Aw, c'mon!" he said, tightening his grip.

"Let me go," she said.

"Don't be like that, girl. C'mon," he continued to say.

"Let. Me. Go," she said icily. So much for not making a scene. Everyone was staring at them, not that they weren't before, but now it was more so. Ella decided it was time to resort to more violent measures. She took her free hand and punched the man in the stomach. He bent forward with a grunt. In his moment of shock, his grip loosened and she yanked her arm free.

"What was that for!" he growled.

"For being an asshole," she said coolly. "Now leave me alone." She gave him a hard glare before returning to her table. She sat down with an audible huff.

The man still stood there, stunned at being treated so. His mood ruined, he grumbled to himself and left the inn.

"Good riddance," Ella muttered. Then she noticed that everyone was staring at them with wide eyes. Uh-oh. Did she do something wrong? Eventually, one of the waitresses near them smiled at her.

"Good riddance! Thanks for getting rid of him. He's been coming here every night and flirting with all the woman. I'm not sad to see him go!"

Ella relaxed and just shrugged in response. "It was nothing."

A large man made his way to their table with a large plate full of drinks. From the looks of it, he was the owner of the restaurant. He set a glass next to Sakura.

"You are pretty good, little girl," he told her with respect. The princess smiled shyly.

"I don't even know the rules of the game," she admitted. "Is that all right?" The owner looked at her for a few moments, undecided, then seemed to think it was all a joke and laughed noisily.

"You're kidding!" he decided. The princess retained herself from arguing, feeling it would be no use anyway. Then the owner started passing the drinks off to the rest of the group, talking all the way.

"You're clothes are pretty weird. Are you tourists?" he asked no one in particular.

"Yes. We're looking for something, so we are traveling all around," Syaoran answered.

"Have you decided where to go yet?" the owner asked, handing out his drink to Syaoran.

"No, not yet," the latter answered again.

"Well, let me give you some advice," the man leaned towards them, as if conspiring. "Do not go north."

"Why not?" Fai asked curiously.

"There is a terrifying legend in the Northern Country," he explained, giving Ella her drink. She sniffed it curiously. What was it? She wasn't thirsty so she decided not to take any chances. She pushed it away from her.

"What kind of legend?" Syaoran asked the owner. The man cleared his throat, put down his plate and began his tale.

"Long ago, there was a castle in the Northern Country. There lived a beautiful princess with golden hair. One day, a bird flew to the princess's side. It gave to her a shiny feather and said: 'There is a strong magic within this feather. It will give you mysterious powers. The princess got the feather. After that, the king and queen died suddenly, and the princess was left master of the castle. And then, as though attracted by the feather, children living outside the castle started disappearing one by one." The man's voice became deeper and his face took a grim expression. "They never returned," he concluded. Ella raised an eyebrow. What kind of messed up story was that?

"Is that a fairytale?" Fai asked innocently. The owner shook his head.

"No, it's a true story."

"But there is indeed a castle in the Northern Country," Syaoran said.

"This is a story passed down for 400 years. That castle should be in ruins by now," the owner explained.

"So," Fai retried, "because of this terrifying legend, we shouldn't go to the Northern Country?"

"No," the man said gravely. Ella shuddered a bit. She didn't like his tone of voice. "Just like in the legend, children started disappearing again."

* * *

><p>Ella stood in the dressing room, looking at herself in her new attire. She wasn't sure what to think of it. Dark blue and laced in white, the corset was a bit tight but she could live with it. The sleeves went to her elbows before they flared out. The ankle-length skirt was the same blue and the hem had frills also. She pushed aside the curtain and walked out of the small fitting room. She saw that the men were already dressed. Kurogane was in black, Fai in a brighter blue than her own, and Syaoran in green. She wasn't very surprised by the color choice.<p>

"Is Sakura-chan still changing?" Ella asked. Before anyone could say anything, Sakura walked out in a lavender dress. Ella smiled. The princess looked pretty as ever. Then the tailor walked out with cloaks for everyone. After that, long story short, they got horses. Ella frowned. There were three horses and five of them. She voiced out her thoughts.

"There were only three horses. You can ride with Kuro-pipi!" Fai said.

"What!" the ninja exclaimed. Ella sighed. Kurogane grumbled some complaints but he didn't have much of a choice. She climbed onto the horse and sat behind Kurogane, her legs dangling on the side of the animal.

"Hold on," she heard Kurogane grunt. Without another word, the horse started moving. Rocking with the horse, Ella lost balance and would've fell off if she hadn't grabbed onto the ninja. She let out a sigh of relief. She glared at him but it was ineffective since he wasn't looking her way.

"I told you to hold on," he said.

"Hey! You gave me like one second to respond."

"Slow, much?"

"I am not slow!" she exclaimed. She was then distracted by Syaoran.

"Are you cold, princess?" he said to Sakura.

"No. This cloak is very warm," she replied.

"Oh, you lived in a desert right?" Fai said.

"But it can get cold at night."

"What about Kuro-rin?" Fai asked. Kurogane sighed at the nickname.

"Japan has four seasons. It's warm in the summer and cold in the winter," he answered.

"And Ella-chan?"

"Same."

"What about Syaoran-kun?" Sakura asked.

"I've travelled around places that have different weather."

"Huh? What does it say?" Mokona interrupted. Ella looked at what she was pointing at. A few meters down the road was a small sign. It was the first thing she had been able to read in a long time. Before Ella could speak, Syaoran beat her to it.

"Spirit," he said. Then he shrugged, "I think that's how you say it. If it's the same pronunciation as my dad taught me."

"It's right. Finally, something in English," Ella said, the last part mostly for herself.

"You actually read it!"

"That's great!" Fai and Sakura exclaimed over his discovery. But Ella's attention was taken by the small town below the hill they appeared to be standing on. It wasn't very big, even smaller than the village they were previously in, and yet… There's something eerie about this town. Something blatantly out of place. That's when it hit her.

There were no people.

The streets were empty, not a sound coming from the houses. Yet she could almost make out the strange, haunted silhouettes of people staring out their windows to them.

"What is this place?" she heard Kurogane mutter.

"Welcome to Spirit," Ella said.

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><p>Review please! Goodbye until next time~<p> 


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: I'm baaack! With a shiny new chapter too! :D Sorry for the wait. High school is being brutal, and it'll probably get worse too.

Random ramble: So I was watching Tsubasa Chronicles today. In episode 3, Kurogane snores! Hahah! Who else finds that funny? Hehe.

Anyways, moving on. It seems that Spirit isn't the only thing being haunted…

_(Disclaimer: I don't own Tsubasa Chronicles. I can only claim Ella and Damian. And any other original characters.)_

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><p>s p i r i t. It was an appropriate name for the haunted ghost town. The streets were devoid of all life, and the houses looked abandoned though it was not so. Ella could clearly see the terrified eyes watching their every move.<p>

"I feel like we're not welcome here," Fai said as a door that was slightly ajar when they passed suddenly slammed violently.

"It's not 'feel like'. It's the truth," Kurogane said gruffly.

Ella's eyes finally caught sight of something other than stone and dirt. A little girl was standing in front of one of the smaller house's doors, a cat in her arms. She stared at the strangers with wide eyes.

"Hello." Syaoran had noticed her also. Both he and Sakura were giving her sweet smiles. "I'd like to ask you a question about this town…" The door behind the girl creaked as it opened to show a panicky woman, her frightened eyes locked on them. A protective arm quickly pressed the little girl to her mother as the woman exclaimed, "Didn't I tell you not to go out!" before closing the door on both of them.

"I guess that has something to do with what we heard at the inn," Fai deducted.

"At least tell us where the golden-haired princess is…" Syaoran said. At that moment the air filled with the thudding of heavy boots on the ground and heavy breathing. Ella barely had the time to look around more before the street in front of them was blocked by a line of shiny riffles. At the sight of them Kurogane's horse gets up on his hind legs. Ella's eyes widened and she tightened her hold on the man. It would not be fun for her to fall off the horse. But Kurogane was quick to get his horse under control so Ella relaxed and loosened her grip.

"Who are you?" the man in the front, the one obviously in charge, yelled at them.

"We are traveling around the world to investigate old legends and architecture," Syaoran answered without a second's thought. It almost sounded as though he rehearsed it.

"Oh yeah? And what are you investigating for?" the man replied skeptically.

"We want to write a book," is Syaoran's surprising answer. The gunmen weren't the only ones surprised.

"A book?" the man asked again.

"Yes."

"A kid like you?"

"Of course not. It's this person," Syaoran pointed towards Fai. Ella resisted the urge to slap her forehead. She didn't want to read the stories he made up.

"That's right!" Fai chirped happily, automatically taking control of the conversation. He gestured to Sakura first. "This is my sister, this boy here is my assistant, and this one-" he showed them Kurogane, "This one's my servant!"

"Who's the servant, you –" Kurogane could barely utter those words before Mokona jumped from behind and gave him a head-butt. Literally.

"Shut up and don't blow our cover," Ella whispered to him.

"What about the other girl?" the man asked, looking Ella up and down. Ella glared at him.

"Oh her?" Fai asked innocently. _Too innocent. What is he planning-?_ "That's my servant's fiancée!" Ella wanted to slap him silly. What in the world was he thinking? Did she look old enough to be someone's fiancée?

"STOP!" a man's voice yelled, stopping Ella or Kurogane from voicing any protests. She turned to find a lanky man with long dark hair and glasses run towards them. He was carrying a doctor's bag, and seemed to be somewhat powerful since the men all point their rifles down as he made his way to them. He planted himself in front of them in a protective stance.

"How dare you point your rifles at innocent travelers!" he exclaimed to the men in front of him.

"But at times like these, these foreigners…" the man who questioned the group before tried to explain.

"Precisely because they come from another land, we should not be impolite!" The man then turned towards the travelers. "I apologize for our rudeness, travelers," he said. He scanned over them quickly, his face not denoting anything but polite greeting. "Welcome to Spirit," he concluded.

* * *

><p>"I really do apologize for that welcoming party," the man said for the tenth time. He had led them to a large building with a common room and many bedrooms, which looked like an old inn.<p>

"It's alright," Syaoran reassured.

"I'm sorry, but I don't recall having heard your names," the doctor noticed. Fai – obviously – answered.

"I apologize for not having introduced ourselves. I am Fai D. Fluorite. My lovely sister's name is Sakura, and my assistant is Syaoran. As for our servant…"

"The name is Ku-ro-ga-ne," the ninja interrupted, arms crossed and his glare defying us to contradict him.

"And this is his wonderful fiancée, Ella," Fai concluded. Ella smiled politely at the doctor. She would have to get Fai later for this.

"My name is Kyle Londart. I am a doctor in this village," the man introduced himself.

"Thanks for letting us stay here," Syaoran said.

"Please don't mention it," the doctor replied. "This used to be an inn. There are many vacant rooms." Suddenly, the door opened with a large crash.

"What is the meaning of this, doctor?" A very upset man entered the room, followed by an elderly balding man. "Bringing outsiders here at a time like this!"

"Mr. Glossam, please calm down!" the elderly man begged him, but the man doesn't seem to cool off.

"How can I be calm, Mr. Mayor! We haven't found any of the missing children yet!" As if to emphasize his point, Glossam tapped his cane on the floor. Ella's eyes widened. So it was true. Children really were disappearing.

"That's why," Kyle said calmly. "These people are doing research on legends around the world. They might be able to help us in this occurrence."

"These vagabonds that came out of nowhere?" Glossam snickered with disgust as he quickly scanned them. "What do they know?" Ella frowned. Who did he think he was to just come in here and insult them? She kept her thoughts to herself though, just to be nice.

"They know things that are unknown to people living here," he said. Glossam glared at all of them.

"If anything happens again, it will be too late by then," he warned before swiftly turning on his heels and disappearing through the door.

"Just make sure they leave in the morning," the other man mumbled to the doctor before departing on the heels of Glossam. Kyle slammed the door himself after he left. He stayed there a few seconds, head bowed and shoulders dropped from frustration.

"Excuse me for not introducing them to you," he finally said, turning back to them. "They are the mayor and Mr. Glossam. He is the owner of most of the land here." Fai stood up from the couch, his expression serious now.

"Looks like we have come troubling you at a bad time. We have heard of the legend of Spirit in the previous town-"

"I believe it's just an ordinary legend as well," Kyle interrupted, "Who would have thought that children really started vanishing…" He looked down, an expression of intense sadness on his face. "We looked very hard, but we weren't able to find any of them. Twenty children are missing as of now." Twenty? Did she hear it right? How could so many kids disappear in a deserted place like this?

"How can this be?" Sakura asked, voicing her thoughts.

"No wonder they were on their guards when they saw us," Kurogane added.

"Poor kids," Ella said softly. The conversation was brought to an end as Kyle ushered them to go upstairs and rest.

"At least we have a place to stay for the night," Fai tried to see the bright side as they made their way upstairs.

"I guess," Ella said.

"You're pretty good at making stuff up, Syaoran," he then said, referring to when they were surrounded by the gunmen. Syaoran blushed a bit at the compliment.

"My dad and I used that excuse a lot when we traveled," he explained.

"Things are getting pretty serious," Fai noticed, glancing over his shoulder through the window to the scene below. The villagers were gathering, lanterns glowing in the night, ghostly figures crying names.

"Anyway, it's already very late," he said, opening the door to Sakura's room. Sakura passed out at that instant, into Syaoran's arms. Ella smiled tenderly as the boy carried the princess and gently laid her on the bed. Then she thought of something.

"Hey, I almost forgot." Ella turned and glared furiously at Fai. "What's with me being his-" she pointed at Kurogane, "fiancée? I'm only seventeen! Do I like look I'm old enough to get married?"

"Yes," Fai answered with wide grin. Ella groaned frustratedly.

"And do I have to share a room with him? Why can't I sleep with Sakura-chan?"

"We're going to look like liars if the couple doesn't sleep together though!" was his excuse. Ella sighed. She didn't bother to point out that the sentence sounded wrong. Maybe it was just her dirty mind at work. She shook her head.

"Oh whatever. Forget you," she said. Fai pretended to look hurt.

"Don't be mad at me!" he whined. Ella rolled her eyes.

"Shut up." Fai turned to Kurogane with wide eyes.

"Did you hear that, Kuro-muy! She told me to shut up!"

"So?" Kurogane responded. "It's not like she hit you." His lips twisted up into a murderous smile. "That I would like to see." Ella turned to Fai to see his hands up in a sign of surrender.

"Please don't hit me."

"I'll be nice then," Ella said, giving him a wry smile. "Goodnight, Syaoran-kun, Fai-san."

"Goodnight, Ella-san," she heard the boy say before she closed the door.

Ella walked over to the bed that Kurogane wasn't occupying. She took of her corset and tossed it onto the foot of the bed. She couldn't wait to find the feather and leave this country with its old-fashioned clothing. The corset was such a bother. She had to take it off and wear it back on the next day. She pushed aside the curtain a bit and looked out the window to the townspeople. A particular person caught her attention. By the clothing, it was a man. He was wearing a black suit that looked a bit different from the world's clothing. One of his hands was on his black hat to keep the wind from blowing it away. His head was tilted up towards the house. Even from this distance, she could see smug green eyes staring right at her. Ella inhaled sharply and dropped her hand, letting the curtain fall back in place. She could no longer see outside, but she could feel those eyes still staring at the window.

"What's wrong with you?" Kurogane's voice snapped her back to reality.

"Nothing," she said, too quickly to be anything but a lie. His eyes narrowed and she turned away. She didn't want another pair of eyes burning a hole into her. She climbed into the bed, her back to the window. She closed her eyes and tried to go to sleep, but all she could see was those pair of green eyes staring at her. Along with it was a face wearing a smug smile. A smile that said he knew things she didn't. She didn't like that.

She tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Her curiosity and paranoia got the best of her, and she cautiously peeked behind the curtains. Outside, snow was falling lightly. There was no man, but she could just make out a set of footprints in the snow. She let go of the curtains and settled down under the blankets. She was put slightly at ease but not enough so that she could fall asleep. Finally fed up, she decided to walk it off a bit. There was a library downstairs with a nice-looking fireplace. Maybe some reading would do her good.

Ella slid the sheets off of her, careful to be quiet. She didn't want to wake the ninja, or anyone else. She silently exited the room, grateful that the door didn't make any squeaking noises. She made her way down and saw no one in the library, not that she expected to. The fire was nothing but a flicker but a few pokes from the metal rod brought it roaring back to life. She scanned the shelves for anything that looked appealing. It was a good thing this world's language was similar to English. She eventually just grabbed a random book, not caring what the title was. She took a seat on the couch and flipped through the first few pages. However, she couldn't help but think about the missing children. How could twenty kids disappear in such an isolated area? This wasn't New York City, where someone could just blend in with the mass crowd. This town was fairly small. A person couldn't hide very easily, especially with kids in tow. She sighed and leaned back into the couch. She stayed like that for a while, staring at the fire and not really focusing on anything. She was really out of it since she jumped at least an inch of the couch when a dark figure appeared in her vision. The book dropped to the ground with a thud. She snapped her head in that direction, prepared to fight, only to realize that it was Kurogane. As he sat down on the couch beside her, he gave her a strange look for her reaction. She relaxed visibly.

"Oh, it's you," she said, picking up the book and sitting back down. She set the closed book in her lap.

"Who else?" he grunted. She shrugged, not wanting to tell him who she thought he was. Damian was the last thing she wanted to think about.

"What did you see outside?" he asked suddenly. Ella bit the inside of her cheek. She didn't think he would ask.

"No one," she managed to say through clenched teeth. It was a mistake. Kurogane rose an eyebrow.

"You saw someone?" he asked. Ella mentally kicked herself. Way to go, Ella.

"It's nothing." Kurogane looked skeptical and suspicious, but thankfully dropped the subject.

"Why are you down here?" Ella asked a little while later.

"Woke up and couldn't go back to sleep," was his reply.

"Oh." They fell silent again. Ella took pleasure in the comfortable silence. It was peaceful and rather soothing, calming her down and almost erasing her previous worries. Of course, nothing stayed forever.

"Hello, Ella." She inhaled sharply and whipped her head around. The male voice had been so close, practically right next to her. However, only Kurogane was there in the room. Speaking of which, he was looking at her.

"What?" he asked. Ella shook her head.

"Nothin-" She stopped when she heard laughter. She looked around again. "Did you hear that?" she said, almost in a whisper.

"Hear what?" he replied, but Ella could tell he sensed something. He was tensed and looking around the room also.

"Someone's here," she said in a whisper, fear inching into her voice.

"Oh, how right you are." Ella felt someone breathing on her ear, which sent her blood running cold. She stood up abruptly, sending the book to the floor once again. She didn't care though. The thud was loud in the quiet room, but it was muffled by the sound of more laughter, louder this time.

"I never knew you to be so jumpy, Ella dear." Ella glanced around the room frantically. It was him. He was here. She didn't know how or when he got here. He just was.

"Leave me alone," she whispered shakily. She mentally slapped herself. What was wrong with her? The dimension travelling was probably messing up her cool. She was never this scared. Then again, these were no ordinary circumstances. This was a man who had somehow gained the ability to cross dimensions and do who-knows what else. Even without any newly acquired powers, he was a force to be reckoned with. Her mother had thought she could run from him. Ella thought she could run, since now she had more places to go to, but no, she was wrong. He had found her twice already.

"Who's there?" Kurogane said.

"I was hoping to get you alone," Damian said with a sigh, "but no matter. I can ignore him if he stays quiet."

"Leave him alone," Ella said. Kurogane, or anyone else for that matter, didn't need to get involved. It was her problem, and hers alone. She didn't want to bring anyone into the mess she had.

"I don't think you're in any position to make demands, little girl." Ella growled, glaring around the room.

"I'm not a little gir-" She was cut off, along with her airway. A force pushed her back against the couch and tightly wrapped around her throat. She gasped and choked for air, clawing at her throat.

"Oi!" Kurogane exclaimed. What the hell was going on? She was hearing things he couldn't, though she didn't seem to be able to see anyone. He felt a person's presence nearby though. After a moment of debating his decision, he swung his arm violently at the space in front of Ella. As he had predicted, his fist came in contact with something solid—probably the mystery person—and it swung back with a grunt. He heard a thud on the ground but didn't pay it much attention. He focused it on Ella, who was coughing and gulping in air.

"You okay?" he asked. She nodded.

"Thanks," she croaked. She was greatly relieved. For a moment, she thought she really was a goner. She looked up and saw Damian on the floor. She could tell Kurogane could see him also. So did he become invisible? How was that possible? Unless he really did obtain some magic powers.

"Heh," Damian said. He stood up easily and looked up and down at Kurogane. "I can see how you might become a problem." He shrugged and exhaled loudly. "Oh well." He turned to Ella with a grin as a tear appeared behind him. Kurogane's eyes widened slightly. He clearly remembered seeing something very similar. "See you soon, Ella."

"I hope you rot in hell, bastard," Ella spat out, her hoarse voice dripping with hate.

"Been there, done that," he said dismissively. The man dropped the smile. "I'll make you pay for your parents' sins and your own."

"Don't you dare," Ella hissed, "talk about my parents like that."

"Ha! They deserve it. I respected your father until he married that monstrous mother of yours. He was a great hunter but he gave it up to raise the monster he and Aislynn created." He paused to glare at her. "You."

"Leave. Now," Ella growled. It took all her willpower not to scream at him. She didn't need the others waking up and wondering what was going on. It was bad enough that Kurogane had witnessed it. But then, if he hadn't been there, she would've choked to death.

"Fine," Damian said. "But I'll be back. The next time I see you, be prepared to be skinned alive." He stepped back and disappeared. It was quiet once again, except for the crackling of the dying fire.

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><p>Like? Reviews are appreciated. (:<p> 


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